Social anxiety and social comparison: differential links with restrictive and bulimic attitudes among nonclinical women.

This study investigated the relationship of two social psychological constructs (social anxiety and social comparison) with bulimic and restrictive eating attitudes among nonclinical women. Eighty young women completed a measure of social anxiety (the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, FNE), a measure of social comparison (the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure, INCOM), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI). The results indicate a differential link between the two different social processes and the nature of eating psychopathology. Specifically, heightened social anxiety predicted drive for thinness, while levels of social comparison predicted bulimic attitudes. The findings support a model where the two social processes are each associated with different patterns of eating pathology.