AUTHOR=Contu Federico , Pierro Antonio 

TITLE=Significance loss brings to extreme self-care related behaviors: the role of interpersonal influence and obsessive (vs. harmonious) passion

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1374747

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1374747

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Building on Significance Quest Theory we hypothesized that significance loss feelings can bring people to extreme self-care related behaviors via (a) the susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and (b) the development of a predominance of obsessive (vs. harmonious) passion toward the self-care. To test these hypotheses, we ran one cross-sectional study among voluntary participants (<italic>N</italic> = 401). Results confirmed our hypotheses, suggesting that physical appearance is perceived as a fruitful and useful route to maintain or even restoring ones’ personal sense of significance. Notably, these results shed light on another scope that can be exploited to achieve social significance (i.e., physical appearance) through extremism, and could represent a starting point to design practical intervention to reduce the examined extreme behaviors.</p>