Television exposure predicts body size ideals in rural Nicaragua

Gledhill

British J Health Psychol

et al. 2016

Objectives: There has been a steady rise in obesity levels in Western countries and a contributory factor is people's failure to recognise weight gain. Two important visual perceptual biases, which have hitherto been ignored in the obesity literature, could contribute to this problem; contraction bias and Weber's law. Contraction bias predicts that the weight of obese bodies will be under-estimated and the degree of underestimation will increase as body mass index (BMI) increases. Weber's law predicts that change in the body size will become progressively harder to detect as their BMI increases. Methods:In Experiment 1, twenty-nine women participants estimated the weight of 120 women varying in their body mass. In Experiment 2, twenty-eight women participants judged which body was the heavier in a 2-alternative forced choice paradigm. Results:In Experiment 1, as predicted the participants showed a progressive underestimation of over-weight and obese bodies, β1 = 0.71, t = 26.96, p < .0001. For Experiment 2, there was a significant effect of the BMI of the bodies being judged on the just noticeable difference needed to discriminate between them: F(1,196) = 89.39, p < .0001 for 3D bodies and F(1,86.5) = 44.57, p < .0001 for digital photographs. Conclusions:Normal visual perceptual biases influence our ability to determine body size: contraction bias and Weber's law mean that as bodies become overweight and obese it is harder to judge their weight and detect any increase in size. These effects may therefore compromise people's ability to recognise weight gain and undertake compensatory weight control behaviours.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual biases in judging body weight

Gledhill

British J Health Psychol

et al. 2016

“…Finally, although our subjects had very low to non-existent access to media in their villages, and despite the fact that the average participant tested had not left their village for 234 days, most have experienced some television when visiting towns or cities in the past. In other words, although body ideals in low media villages in this location are considerably larger than in the west 7 , it is possible that even modest prior experience may modulate the impacts seen here. Thus replication with a completely media-naïve population (not only in terms of TV access at home, but without any access to the visual media at all, even when travelling) would be ideal, albeit extremely difficult.…”

mentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Media consumption is associated with a drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and disordered eating in women of western and/or industrialised societies 4 . Furthermore, cross-cultural research suggests that the media have similar effects when they are introduced into non-western or non-industrialised societies 2,6,7 . No study, however, has attempted to induce a change in female body size ideals in a population that is not exposed to the thin ideal and that has currently no access to the media.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, across 77 correlational and experimental studies, media exposure was associated with a stronger internalisation of the thin body ideal, higher body dissatisfaction, and higher eating disorder symptomatology 4 . Furthermore, cross-cultural research has shown that populations with limited access to the media have a higher female body size ideal 7,15-17 , and that the introduction of television in previously media-naïve populations is accompanied by an increase in body dissatisfaction and pathological eating attitudes 2,6,7,14 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The effect of the thin body ideal in a media-naïve population

Jucker

Thornborrow

Tovee

et al. 2017

Preprint

Self Cite

3The thin ideal is the western concept of an ideally slim or underweight female body 1 , 4 and its omnipresence in the mass media has a negative impact on women's health [2][3][4][5] . 5Media consumption is associated with a drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, low 6 self-esteem, and disordered eating in women of western and/or industrialised 7 societies 4 . Furthermore, cross-cultural research suggests that the media have similar 8 effects when they are introduced into non-western or non-industrialised societies 2,6,7 . 9No study, however, has attempted to induce a change in female body size ideals in a 10 population that is not exposed to the thin ideal and that has currently no access to the 11 media. Here we show experimentally that a short exposure to the thin ideal can 12 change body size ideals in a media-naïve population. 80 rural Nicaraguan men and 13 women with very low to non-existent media access created their ideal female body 14 before and after seeing photographs of either thin or plus size fashion models. 15Analyses revealed a significant interaction between time and group, meaning that 16 exposure to media images shifted the subjects' ideal female body size. We discuss 17 problems posed by the pervasiveness of the thin body ideal in the context of the 18 global obesity pandemic. 19Up to 30-50% of girls and women from western or industrialised countries have 20 negative body image 8,9 , which contributes to widespread psychopathologies such as low 21 self-esteem, depression, and disordered eating 10,11 . One key sociocultural contributor to 22 body dissatisfaction is the thin body ideal and its omnipresence in the mass media 1,3,5,[12][13][14] . 23For example, across 77 correlational and experimental studies, media exposure was 24 associated with a stronger internalisation of the thin body ideal, higher body dissatisfaction, 25 and higher eating disorder symptomatology 4 . Furthermore, cross-cultural research has 26shown that populations with limited access to the media have a higher female body size 27 ideal 7,[15][16][17] , and that the introduction of television in previously media-naïve populations is 28 accompanied by an increase in body dissatisfaction and pathological eating attitudes 2,6,7,14 . 29Although past research suggests that the media impact female body size ideals and 30 so have a negative effect on women's health, it suffers from two important limitations. First, 31 experimental research has never shown that the thin ideal and the media can induce a 32 change in body size ideals in a non-WEIRD (western, educated, industrialised, rich, and 33 democratic) 18, media-naïve population. Instead researchers have used western, 34 industrialised subjects in countries where the thin body ideal is already omnipresent in the 35 media and where poor body image is already widespread [19][20][21] . Second, all cross-cultural 36 research using non-western or non-industrialised subjects has been correlational, cross-37 sectional, or pseudo-longitudinal, and has therefore failed to es...

“…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

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.