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Abstract
Eating disorders are of great interest not only to researchers and clinicians, but also to the general public. The question arises as to the accuracy of the beliefs of lay people or their implicit theories concerning these disorders, especially that they seem to obtain most of their information on the subject from the mass media. This paper contains a review of studies on lay theories of eating disorders from the past 30 years. It would be difficult to draw one overarching conclusion from that extensive body of research, given that individual authors addressed different questions and used disparate methodologies and tools. However, it may be safely stated that while in many areas the respondents’ knowledge is quite high and in line with the diagnostic manuals and clinical data, it is often insufficient. Indeed, it has been reported that some implicit theories appear to be inconsistent with the truth or even stigmatize the patients, blaming them for their illness. Such reports merit careful analysis with a view to developing measures that would raise public awareness of eating disorders, with a potentially prominent role to be played by psycho-education.Key words: eating disorders, implicit theories, psycho-education.