Implicit attitudes toward dieting and thinness distinguish fat-phobic and non-fat-phobic anorexia nervosa from avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder in adolescents.

Individuals with NFP-AN exhibited a mixed pattern in which some of their implicit associations were consistent with their explicit endorsements, whereas others were not, possibly reflecting a minimizing response style on explicit measures. In contrast, individuals with ARFID demonstrated implicit associations consistent with explicit endorsements. Replication studies are needed to confirm whether the questionnaire-based IAT is a promising method of differentiating between restrictive eating disorders that share similar clinical characteristics.