Effects of visual adaptation on perception of and satisfaction with own body size: two randomised studies

Bould, Helen; Carnegie, Rebecca; Allward, Heather; Bacon, Emily; Lambe, Emily; Sapseid, Megan; Button, Katherine; Lewis, Glyn; Skinner, Andy; Broome, Matthew R.; Park, Rebecca; Harmer, C J; Penton-Voak, Ian S.; Munafò, Marcus R.

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00862-4

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In terms of perception of the size of others' bodies, this study is consistent with previous results, which have used stretched photographs, line drawings and photographs [10][11][12][13][14]33,34]. Our study trained participants over a longer time scale, and one third of our participants had not done any training for more than six hours before the follow-up measurements, suggesting these effects on perception of others' bodies are quite long-lasting, which is consistent with our own previous work [16].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Does repeatedly viewing overweight versus underweight images change perception of and satisfaction with own body size?

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Body dissatisfaction is associated with subsequent eating disorders and weight gain. One-off exposure to bodies of different sizes changes perception of others' bodies, and perception of and satisfaction with own body size. The effect of repeated exposure to bodies of different sizes has not been assessed. We randomized women into three groups, and they spent 5 min twice a day for a week completing a one-back task using images of women modified to appear either under, over, or neither over- nor underweight. We tested the effects on their perception of their own and others' body size, and satisfaction with own size. Measures at follow-up were compared between groups, adjusted for baseline measurements. In 93 women aged 18–30 years, images of other women were perceived as larger following exposure to underweight women (and vice versa) ( p < 0.001). There was no evidence for a difference in our primary outcome measure (visual analogue scale own size) or in satisfaction with own size. Avatar-constructed ideal ( p = 0.03) and avatar-constructed perceived own body size ( p = 0.007) both decreased following exposure to underweight women, possibly due to adaptation affecting how the avatar was perceived. Repeated exposure to different sized bodies changes perception of the size of others' bodies, but we did not find evidence that it changes perceived own size.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Does repeatedly viewing overweight versus underweight images change perception of and satisfaction with own body size?

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Body size and shape misperception (BSSM)a phenomenon in which some individuals overestimate or underestimate their body sizeaffects a large and growing segment of the population of Western countries (Powell et al, 2010;Quick et al, 2015), and is becoming increasingly common in Asian societies and around the world (Wardle et al, 2006). Body size overestimation is associated with high levels of body dissatisfaction, anxiety and depression, and is a risk factor for the development of eating disorders and compulsive exercise behaviour, particularly in young women (Bould et al, 2018;Griffiths et al, 2016). In Malaysia, a rapidly-developing Southeast Asian country, 20.5% of underweight young women in a large epidemiological study overestimated their body size (Khor et al, 2009), while a large longitudinal study of young people in 24 Western countries found that over 40% of non-overweight young women overestimated their body size (Quick et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…showing that the introduction of television into a region is associated with thinner ideal body size (Boothroyd et al, 2016), even when controlling for potential confounds such as nutritional status (Jucker et al, 2017). However, some evidence suggests that exposure to idealised bodies may have less pronounced effects on body dissatisfaction (which is affected by BSSM; Bould et al, 2018) for individuals of races not represented in the images (DeBraganza and Hausenblas, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Thin White Line: Adaptation suggests a common neural mechanism for judgements of Asian and Caucasian body size

Gould-Fensom¹,

Tan²,

Brooks³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Visual adaptation has been proposed as a mechanism linking viewing images of thin women’s bodies with body size and shape misperception (BSSM). Non-Caucasian populations appear less susceptible to BSSM, possibly because adaptation to thin Caucasian bodies in Western media may not fully transfer to own-race bodies. Experiment 1 used a cross-adaptation paradigm to examine the transfer of body size aftereffects across races. Large aftereffects were found in the predicted directions for all conditions. The strength of aftereffects was statistically equivalent when the race of test stimuli was congruent vs incongruent with the race of adaptation stimuli, suggesting complete transfer of aftereffects across races. Experiment 2 used a contingent-adaptation paradigm, finding that simultaneous adaptation to wide Asian and narrow Caucasian women’s bodies (or vice versa) results in no significant aftereffects for either congruent or incongruent conditions, and statistically equivalent results for each. Equal and opposite adaptation effects may therefore transfer completely across races, cancelling each other out. This suggests that body size is encoded by a race-general neural mechanism. Unexpectedly, Asian observers showed reduced body size aftereffects compared to Caucasian observers, regardless of the race of stimulus bodies, perhaps helping to explain why Asian populations appear less susceptible to BSSM.

show abstract

Effects of visual adaptation on perception of and satisfaction with own body size: two randomised studies

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Does repeatedly viewing overweight versus underweight images change perception of and satisfaction with own body size?

Does repeatedly viewing overweight versus underweight images change perception of and satisfaction with own body size?

The Thin White Line: Adaptation suggests a common neural mechanism for judgements of Asian and Caucasian body size

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About