TY - JOUR A1 - Möllmann, Anne A1 - Hunger, Antje A1 - Dusend, Christina A1 - van den Hout, Marcel A1 - Buhlmann, Ulrike T1 - Gazing at facial features increases dissociation and decreases attractiveness ratings in non-clinical females - A potential explanation for a common ritual in body dysmorphic disorder JF - PloS one N2 - Rituals, such as gazing at faces, are common in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and appear in cognitive-behavioral models as a maintaining factor. Rituals are also common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In contrast to OCD, the proposed associations between rituals and intrusive thoughts/appearance preoccupation have not been empirically investigated for BDD. We examined if the assumed effect of gazing rituals on attractiveness ratings exists and if it is associated with dissociation. In an experiment, we asked N = 65 non-clinical females to focus on the nose of a photographed face at pre- and post-test. In between, participants gazed at the nose of either the same (relevant gazing) or another face (irrelevant gazing). We found increasing dissociation after gazing in both conditions and a differentially stronger decrease of attractiveness ratings in the relevant gazing condition. Our findings support the hypothesized effect of gazing rituals on attractiveness evaluation in cognitive-behavioral models for BDD. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219791 VL - 14 IS - 7 PB - PLoS ER -