Restrictive eating attitudes and behaviors have been hypothesized to be related to processes of intrasexual competition. According to this perspective, within-sex competition for status serves the adaptive purpose of attracting mates. As such, status competition salience may lead to concerns of mating desirability. For heterosexual women and gay men, such concerns revolve around appearing youthful and thus, thinner. Following this logic, we examined how exposure to high-status and competitive (but not thin or highly attractive) same-sex individuals would influence body image and eating attitudes in heterosexual and in gay/lesbian individuals. Results indicated that for heterosexuals, intrasexual competition cues led to greater body image dissatisfaction and more restrictive eating attitudes for women, but not for men. In contrast, for homosexual individuals, intrasexual competition cues led to worse body image and eating attitudes for gay men, but not for lesbian women. These findings support the idea that the ultimate explanation for eating disorders is related to intrasexual competition.

中文翻译：

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异性恋和同性恋者的同性竞争和饮食限制。

限制性饮食态度和行为被假设与性内竞争过程有关。根据这个观点，性别内部的地位竞争服务于吸引配偶的适应性目的。因此，地位竞争的显着性可能会导致对交配意愿的担忧。对于异性恋女性和男同性恋者来说，这种担忧围绕着显得年轻，从而变得更瘦。按照这个逻辑，我们研究了接触高地位和有竞争力（但不是瘦弱或极具吸引力）的同性个体如何影响异性恋和男/女同性恋者的身体形象和饮食态度。结果表明，对于异性恋者，性内竞争线索导致女性对身体形象的更大不满和更严格的饮食态度，但对男性则不然。相比之下，对于同性恋者来说，性内竞争线索导致男同性恋者的身体形象和饮食态度更差，但女同性恋者则不然。这些发现支持了饮食失调的最终解释与性内竞争有关的观点。