1. Cheryl M. Hannigan and Mark A. Duva
People's Body Shape Perceptions and Preferences: Fallon and Rozin Revisited (6-36)
Cheryl M. Hannigan and Mark A. Duva
Cerritos College
Introduction
Results
Figure 2. Subjects were likely to know someone who had cosmetic surgery and also strongly considered cosmetic surgery for themselves.
It has been over two decades since Fallon and Rozin (1985) published a study on sex differences in the perception of desirable body shapes.
The major findings of that study were:
Females described their current body shapes as heavier than attractive and ideal body shapes as well as the body shapes they believed males considered attractive.
Males reported a desirable female body shape that was significantly larger than what females perceived males considered desirable.
Males considered their current, attractive, ideal body shape and the body shape they believed females found attractive to be virtually the same.
Female participants desired a male body shape that was significantly slimmer than what males believed females considered attractive.
This implies that females were unsatisfied with their current body shape, while men appeared to be satisfied with their current body shape.
Both genders had distorted views about the body shape the opposite sex found desirable.
Replicating and extending that study from over 20 years ago in today’s society during the “cosmetic surgery era” may uncover trends in body shape perception, attitudes about cosmetic surgery and the prevalence of eating disorders in the United States not evident in the original study.
Oneway, repeated measures ANOVA followed by Student-Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test revealed significant differences in responses between females (F(2,298)=85.1, p<0.01) and males (F(2,164)=5.1, p<0.01). Female data were virtually identical to those of Fallon and Rozin (1985). Women’s perceptions of their current figures were significantly larger than their ideal and attractive shapes; however unlike the previous study this pattern was also seen in men as well.
Independent samples t-tests also revealed results similar to Fallon and Rozin regarding female and male reports as to what was considered attractive, which differed from body shapes both sexes thought the other found attractive. Two decades later, women still believed that body shapes men considered attractive were significantly thinner what men actually reported as attractive (t(231)=5.1, p<0.01). In the initial study, men’s current and attractive shapes were the same, but women preferred thinner body shapes than men reported as attractive. However, a new finding is that men’s ideas of what body shapes females prefer were the same as what men reported as attractive (t(231)=0.11, p>0.90), but significantly thinner than their currently reported body shapes (t(231)=2.55, p<0.02). Thus, female and male perceptions about their current and attractive body shapes and what each reportedly wants were similar: Thin is in apparently for both sexes especially for females, but perhaps not as thin as perceived! As shown in Figure 2 both sexes may be willing to resort to cosmetic surgery to obtain an “attractive” body shape.
Discussion
Despite the different demographic, results of the Fallon and Rozin (1985) study were replicated here, but the current study also exposed a disturbing trend among males not seen in the previous study.
As previously noted, females were reportedly dissatisfied with their current body shapes.
Media exposure to ideal female images may have a negative impact on a women's self-esteem, and dissatisfaction with one’s body shape may lead to eating disorders such as anorexia and/or bulimia (Johnson et al., 2007).
Resorting to cosmetic surgery may be a quick, but risky, way to alleviate female’s dissatisfaction with their body shapes. The number of cosmetic surgical procedures has increased dramatically over the past 15 years (American Society of Plastic Surgeons) and the number of teenagers having cosmetic surgery is also on the rise (Pearl et al., 2003). Figure 2 shows responses from subjects regarding cosmetic surgery in the present study.
A new trend is that males may be experiencing the same societal pressures as females to be thin, and no longer see their current body shapes as ideal or attractive.
The image of the ideal male body portrayed in the media has become more muscular over the past few decades (Johnson et al., 2007), perhaps resulting in dissatisfaction among males with their current body shapes (Johnson et al., 2007).
Rather than surgery, males may resort to using harmful drugs such as anabolic steroids to achieve these arbitrary male ideals seen in the media, and males may also be experiencing eating disorders which have been traditionally associated with females (Field et al., 2005; Hobza et al., 2007).
Methods
Two hundred and thirty three (N=233) Cerritos College students volunteered for the experiment. The sample included 83 males and 150 females. The mean age of the subjects was of 22.6 years of age. The sample included 12% Caucasian, 9% African American, 50% Latino, 23% Asian/Pacific Islander and 6% other. Subjects were given extra credit for their participation.
The survey took approximately 10 minutes for subjects to complete and included demographic information as well as the body shape/preference scale adapted from Stunkard et al. (1983).
Subjects examined a series of female and male figure drawings ranging from very thin to obese. Both female and male figure drawings were ranked from 1 to 9, (1 being very thin and 9 obese) by subjects to indicated their current figure (C), their ideal figure (I), the same sex figure they believed was most attractive to the opposite sex (A), and the opposite sex figure most attractive to them (OA).
After filing out the questionnaire subjects were debriefed.
Figure 1. Drawings shown to subjects along with mean responses on the 1-9 body shape scale.
References
Table 1. Mean and SEM of subject’s responses to body shapes in Fig. 1. Differences examined by ANOVA and t-test (see text in Results).
American Society of Plastic Surgeons,
Fallon, A.E. & Rozin, P. (1985). Sex differences in perceptions of desirable body shape. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94,
Hobza, C.L., Walker, K. E., Yakushko, O., & Peugh, J. L. (2007). What about men? Social comparison and the effects of media images on body and self-esteem. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 8.
Field, A.E., Austin, S.B., Camargo Jr., C.A., Taylor, C.B., Striegel-Moore, R.H., Loud, K.J., and Colditz, G.A. (2005). Exposure to the mass media, body shape concerns, and use of supplements to improve weight and shape among male and female adolescents. Pediatrics, 116,
Johnson, P.J., McCreary, D.R., & Mills, J.S. (2007). Effects of exposure to objectified male and female media images on men's psychological well-being. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 8,
Pearl, A. & Weston, J. (2003). Attitudes of adolescents about cosmetic surgery. Annals of Plastic Surgery, 50,
Stunkard, A. J., Sorensen, T., & Schulsinger, F. (1983). Use of the Danish adoption register for the study of obesity and thinness. In S.S. Kety, L. P. Rowland, R. L. Sidman, & S. W. Mathysse (Eds.), The genetics of neurological and psychiatric disorders. New York: Raven Press.