Mood News.

Byline: Lois B. Morris

"Do I Look Fat in This?"

T hat loaded question was the focus of Lynette Evans and Arthur A. Stukas, psychologists at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. They surveyed 39 couples to determine what women hope to hear when they ask their male partners to evaluate their appearance. Their research revealed that women who viewed their looks unfavorably actually preferred their partners to confirm their poor self-image--and often got the kind of negative feedback they sought (for example, the comment: "You should go to the gym"). Yet the women who received such confirmation rated their relationships as less happy than did those whose partners refuted their critical self-assessments. (Responses suggesting that the women looked good contributed to relationship satisfaction, even if the women didn't believe them.) The researchers also found that couples tended to be matched in liking or disliking their own bodies and their opinions of their relationships, and that the women who were prone to soliciting judgmental feedback about their appearance were more likely than other women to report symptoms of depression or abnormal eating behavior. Evans advises taking action to address recurring body-image issues instead of looking to others to validate or negate them.

Sisters and Breast Cancer Risk

By definition, genetic mutations that increase one's risk of breast cancer run in families. As close relatives get tested for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, their results may have an impact on their family relationships, even if they don't develop the disease. ...