The guiding hypothesis for the proposed research is that extreme atypical beliefs about beauty are cognitive risk factors for suicidal behavior and symptoms of anorexia (AN). There is accruing evidence that some people see death or """"""""excessively thin"""""""" (to be described as """"""""emaciation"""""""") as beautiful (e.g. Young, Sweeting, &West;Norris, Boydell, Pinhas, &Katzman, 2006), and this association may make them more likely to die by suicide or develop AN, respectively. Joiner's (2005) interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide holds that three conditions must be met before a person will die by suicide: thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and the acquired capability for suicide (operationalized as fearlessness about death). Believing death to be beautiful may increase one's acquired capability for suicide by making one more fearless about death. In the case of AN, believing that an emaciated body ideal is more beautiful than a thin body ideal may motivate individuals to severely and unwaveringly restrict in order to achieve this beauty standard. Study 1 will provide initial estimates of the prevalence of the beliefs """"""""death is beautiful"""""""" and """"""""emaciation is beautiful"""""""" in young adults. It will also provide estimates of the association of these beliefs to levels of fearlessness about death and eating disorder symptoms, respectively. Through the employment of a lexical decision task, the second study will investigate whether people with AN symptoms associate emaciation with beauty more readily than non-eating disordered people. Utilizing a similar design, the third study will examine whether people with high levels of acquired capability for suicide are more likely to associate death with beauty than people with low levels of acquired capability for suicide. These studies will also begin to examine the link between AN and death by suicide. There is a pressing need for more research examining these outcomes as an average of 30,000 people die by suicide every year (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2004), and anorexia nervosa (AN) is the most deadly psychological disease (Thompsen, McCoy, &Williams, 2001). By clarifying the nature of the thoughts that some people with an acquired capability for suicide or symptoms of AN have, we will be better able to design prevention and treatment procedures.
