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Muscle and fat aftereffects and the role of gender: Implications for body image disturbance
Citation
Brooks, KR and Keen, E and Sturman, D and Mond, JM and Stevenson, RJ and Stephen, ID, Muscle and fat aftereffects and the role of gender: Implications for body image disturbance, British Journal of Psychology pp. 1-20. ISSN 0007-1269 (2019) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The British Psychological Society
Abstract
Body image disturbance – a cause of distress amongst the general population and those
diagnosed with various disorders – is often attributed to the media’s unrealistic depiction
of ideal bodies. These ideals are strongly gendered, leading to pronounced fat concern
amongst females, and a male preoccupation with muscularity. Recent research suggests
that visual aftereffects may be fundamental to the misperception of body fat and muscle
mass – the perceptual component of body image disturbance. This study sought to
establish the influence of gender on these body aftereffects. Male and female observers
were randomly assigned to one of four adaptation conditions (low-fat, high-fat, lowmuscle, and high-muscle bodies) and were asked to adjust the apparent fat and muscle
levels of male and female bodies to make them appear as ‘normal’ as possible both before
adaptation and after adaptation. While neither the gender of observers nor of body
stimuli had a direct effect, aftereffect magnitude was significantly larger when observers
viewed own-gender (compared with other-gender) stimuli. This effect, which may be due
to attentional factors, could have implications for the development of body image
disturbance, given the preponderance of idealized own-gender bodies in media marketed
to male and female consumers.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | body image disturbance; visual aftereffects; gender |
Research Division: | Psychology |
Research Group: | Cognitive and computational psychology |
Research Field: | Sensory processes, perception and performance |
Objective Division: | Health |
Objective Group: | Public health (excl. specific population health) |
Objective Field: | Mental health |
UTAS Author: | Mond, JM (Dr Jon Mond) |
ID Code: | 139510 |
Year Published: | 2019 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 5 |
Deposited By: | UTAS Centre for Rural Health |
Deposited On: | 2020-06-18 |
Last Modified: | 2020-08-12 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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