Health: Mood News.

Searching for Beauty

Everyone -- male and female -- notices a beautiful woman. In a study led by Florida State University psychologist Jon K. Maner, head shots of 15 men and 15 women were flashed on a screen. Each group included five faces that had previously been rated highly attractive. When shown a fleeting image, college students overestimated the number of beautiful women, but not of beautiful men. The researchers say that people scan the environment for what's foremost on their minds, which would explain why young, sexually active men would notice mostly the attractive women. As for the female subjects, evolutionary theory suggests that they might be identifying threats to their sexual involvements. In fact, the women who overestimated the number of very attractive female faces the most were the ones in committed relationships.

Body Monitoring

How frequently a woman weighs herself or looks in the mirror -- or actively avoids doing these things -- can be one sign of an eating disorder. In surveying 64 women receiving treatment for eating disorders, psychologist Roz Shafran and her colleagues at Oxford University and hospitals in London noted that virtually all of them repeatedly scrutinized their bodies -- for example, by ...