Norms we inhabit, bodies we monitor: Associations between heterosexual scripts, self-objectification, and eating behaviors

Background Eating-related dysregulation has been linked to sociocultural pressures surrounding body image and gender norms, yet the relative contribution of distal cultural ideologies and proximal psychological processes remains unclear. This study examined associations among heterosexual script endorsement, self-objectification, and eating-related behaviors in cisgender adults. Methods In a cisgender community sample of 191 adults (91 men, 100 women), we assessed heterosexual scripts, self-objectification, cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating. Analyses included Pearson correlations, MANOVA by gender and sexual orientation, exploratory regression analyses, and k-means cluster analysis. Results Self-objectification was associated with cognitive restraint and emotional eating and clustered with eating-related difficulties in a higher-risk profile. Heterosexual script endorsement showed only small correlations with self-objectification and eating-related variables and contributed minimally to cluster differentiation. Compared with men, women reported higher self-objectification and emotional eating. Compared with heterosexual and gay/lesbian participants, bisexual participants reported higher uncontrolled and emotional eating and were more frequently represented in the higher-risk cluster. Conclusions Findings suggest that eating-related dysregulation may be associated with self-objectification and affect-related processes, whereas heterosexual script endorsement showed comparatively weaker and less consistent associations with eating-related variables. Results support a process-oriented understanding of eating-related behaviors while remaining consistent with the correlational and exploratory nature of the study.