Influences on attraction

Exposure to extremely thin bodies, such as those favoured by today's models and celebrities, can change subsequent perceptions of body attractiveness and normality.

This is the conclusion of research by Professor Gillian Rhodes and Christopher Winkler from the University of Western Australia. They present their findings on Monday 9 May 2005, in the British Journal of Psychology (copies available to journalists on request).

The primary aim of their study was to investigate whether experience can change what is attractive in human bodies. It was thought that after viewing extremely wide bodies, the most attractive body type should become significantly wider, whereas after exposure to extremely narrow bodies, the most attractive body type should become significantly narrower.

Using standardised photographs, ten female bodies were distorted to differing degrees by being made both narrower and wider. 75 students participated in the experiment, 40 of whom rated the test bodies on how attractive they looked, with half of those adapting to extremely narrow bodies and half to extremely wide bodies. The remaining 35 participants rated the bodies on how normal they looked, with 18 adapting to narrow bodies and 17 to wide bodies.

The study revealed that even short durations of just five minutes exposure to distorted bodies can change subsequent perceptions of body attractiveness and normality. The most attractive and most normal body became significantly narrower after adaptation to narrow bodies.

The authors of the report said: "The research provides the first experimental evidence that body attractiveness can be changed by experience. Even small amounts of exposure to thin bodies can have a short-term negative effect on body image."

They continued to say that: "The finding that perceptions of normality in bodies can be changed by experience, may have implications for the relationship between the media and body-image disturbances. Many individuals in the media have thin body shapes, and a positive relationship between high media consumption and maladaptive body-image has previously been found. In the past this relationship was thought to be due to social-cognitive processes, however, the results of the present study suggest that this relationship may be mediated by perceptual changes in what looks normal."

Ref: PR792