Fear of negative evaluation is the fear that one's self will be judged negatively.

Social appearance anxiety (i.e., fear of negative evaluation of one's appearance), general fear of negative evaluation, and perfectionism have each been proposed as risk factors for both social anxiety disorder and eating disorders.

Eating and anxiety disorders are highly comorbid, with some studies finding up to 83 percent of individuals with an eating disorder also meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has the highest occurrence of all anxiety disorders in individuals with eating disorders and is significantly more common among individuals with eating disorders.

Social appearance anxiety is "the fear that one will be negatively evaluated because of one's appearance."

Social appearance anxiety is positively correlated with measures of social anxiety and negative body image but does not represent mere overlap among these other constructs.

Instead, social appearance anxiety taps into a unique proportion of variability in social anxiety beyond negative body image, depression, personality, and affect.

Have proposed that perceived flaws in appearance may be one of the core fears causing individuals with SAD to fear public criticism.

Both socially anxious individuals and those with eating disorders have elevated levels of at least some type of perfectionism.

Perfectionism is posited to contribute to the maintenance of social anxiety by priming socially anxious individuals to assume that social interactions will be harmful because they fail to meet an excellent standard.

Similarly, several systematic reviews suggest that perfectionism is a risk factor for eating disorders.

Research indicates that there are two-dimensional aspects of perfectionism. An adapted maladaptive type (e.g., evaluative perfectionism), related to adverse outcomes such as anxiety and depression time type (e.g., high standards), related to healthy functioning.

Research has found that maladaptive perfectionism has a robust positive relationship with social anxiety. In contrast, high standards have a weaker, inverse relationship with social anxiety.

Maladaptive perfectionism may be especially relevant to understanding the comorbidity between SAD and eating disorders, whereas high standards might be more relevant for eating disorders because they are high.

Maladaptive perfectionism can be conceptualized as critical self-evaluation, whereas adaptive perfectionism may be a healthy drive for personal achievement standards are often seen within individuals with eating disorders.