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Reactions to ideal body shapes

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DOI: 10.1080/00221309.2019.1676190

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Reactions to ideal body shapes

Katarina Prnjak, Stephanie Pemberton, Eric Helms & James G. Phillips

To cite this article: Katarina Prnjak, Stephanie Pemberton, Eric Helms & James G.
Phillips (2019): Reactions to ideal body shapes, The Journal of General Psychology, DOI:
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THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2019.1676190

Reactions to ideal body shapes

Katarina Prnjaka , Stephanie Pembertonb, Eric Helmsb, and
James G. Phillipsb
a
Western Sydney University; bAuckland University of Technology

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Difficult-to-attain beauty standards that are promulgated by Received 12 June 2019
the media could contribute to body dissatisfaction, but their Accepted 28 September 2019
potential impact upon body image remains unclear. The pre-
KEYWORDS
sent study examined reactions to thin-ideal and muscular-ideal
Body image; thinness;
images, and examined the effects of ideal image exposure on beauty; bodybuilding;
preferred body shape and time spent deliberating about ideal attentional bias
shape. In a 2
2 experimental design, 200 Internet users com-
pleted the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) and were
randomly assigned to view idealistic body images or houses
(and rated them on semantic differential dimensions). Females
viewed thin ideal images and males viewed muscular ideal
images, while the control groups viewed images of houses.
Between group measures analysis of variance revealed women
reacted negatively to thinspirational images. Women were
more driven for thinness and idealized a thinner shape for the
female body than men. Psychologically distressed participants
had a stronger drive for thinness and greater body dissatisfac-
tion compared to low-distress participants. In addition,
although beauty ideal imagery had no significant impact on
males, females spent more time in choosing ideal body figure.
Viewing thin bodies for females created a trend toward desir-
ing a slimmer figure, as well as increased preoccupation with
size as they spent more time deliberating over a photorealistic
figure rating scale. Therefore, exposure to thinspiration pro-
motes dissatisfaction with self and leads women to dwell
more upon their body image.

Body image can influence quality of life (Nayir et al., 2016) and can be
negatively influenced by distress and cultural ideals (Campbell &
Hausenblas, 2009). Modern western culture values excessive thinness as an
ideal for females (Lawler & Nixon, 2011), but these ideals are largely
unrealistic as only 2% of women in the United States have the weight
required to meet these modeling inspired criteria (Strahan, Wilson,
Cressman, & Buote, 2006). The pressure to meet these “standards” can
harm self-esteem and body image (Polivy & Herman, 2002) and also cause

CONTACT Katarina Prnjak katarinaprnjak@gmail.com Translational Health Research Institute (THRI),

School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/vgen.
ß 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

feelings of rejection (Blodorn, Major, Hunger, & Miller, 2016; Ravary,

Baldwin, & Bartz, 2019), helplessness, inadequacy, and anxiety (Halliwell &
Dittmar, 2004). These hard-to-achieve beauty standards depicted by mass
media can lead to the internalization of such ideals – posing a strong risk
for the development of eating disorders (Piran, 2015). Although clinical
eating disorders affect a small segment of the population, nonclinical risk-
related symptoms – such as body image dissatisfaction – are widespread,
with around 50% of girls and young women being affected (Ferguson,
Mu~ noz, Garza, & Galindo, 2014). In addition, many males also experience
body image dissatisfaction as a consequence of drive for muscularity
(Murray et al., 2016).
The media created a preoccupation with body shape (Ravary et al.,
2019). The rise of thin-ideal and bodybuilding imagery has been observed
on social media platforms (Fardouly & Vartanian, 2016), whose usage
seems to be associated with negative body image (Holland & Tiggemann,
2016). Specifically, time spent online highly correlated with the internaliza-
tion of the thin ideal, body surveillance, and drive for thinness (Tiggemann
& Slater, 2013). Lawler and Nixon (2011) defined this internalization as
“the extent to which an individual cognitively buys into socially defined
ideals of attractiveness, incorporates these standards into one’s personal
belief system and commits to behaviors intended to produce an approxima-
tion of these ideals” (p. 3). It may be that the internalization of beauty
ideals is the crucial link between media and body discontent (Lawler &
Nixon, 2011). Furthermore, individuals who experience eating disorder
symptoms commonly use social media to motivate and perpetuate their
harmful thoughts and behavior (Borzekowski, Schenk, Wilson, & Peebles,
2010). Pro-eating disorder websites were also found to have an impact on
body image dissatisfaction, dieting and negative affect (Rodgers, Lowy,
Halperin, & Franko, 2016), probably due to sharing thinspiration posts
containing images or quotes intended to inspire weight loss. Similarly, there
is an increasing number of pro-muscularity websites with bodybuilding
content that may encourage some unhealthy eating and exercising behav-
iors and thus provide a greater risk for the development of male eating dis-
orders (Murray et al., 2016). In view of such observations, it seems the
Internet can increase risks of developing eating concerns and negative body
image by providing constant easy access to images and information related
to beauty ideals.
It is well known that body shape ideals differ for men and women, with
the sociocultural influences presenting muscular bodies as ideal for men
and thin bodies as ideal for women (Knauss, Paxton, & Alsaker, 2007). In
recent years, males have experienced growing sociocultural pressure as
male beauty ideals appeared increasingly in media, encouraging less fat and
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 3

more muscle (Knauss et al., 2007). Also, images depicting this muscular
ideal have been found to adversely affect males who internalize the meso-
morphic ideal (Blond, 2008). Furthermore, many studies (Cohn & Adler,
1992; Fallon & Rozin, 1985; Phelps et al., 1993; Rozin & Fallon, 1988) have
found that men and women differ in their opinions as to the ideal body
figure preferred by the opposite gender. Women believe that men prefer a
thinner ideal female figure than the figures men actually prefer, reflecting
common beauty ideals that are difficult to attain (Bergstrom, Neighbors, &
Lewis, 2004). Likewise, men believe that women prefer males to have larger
bodies than those that women actually prefer (Fallon & Rozin, 1985). All in
all, both genders typically prefer opposite sex figures that more closely
represent the average healthy body shape.
Psychological distress is argued to play a key role in both the develop-
ment of mental health problems and the ability to cope with these condi-
tions (Deasy, Coughlan, Pironom, Jourdan, & Mannix-McNamara, 2014).
Further, there is an established relationship between body image, distress
(Blodorn et al., 2016) and eating disorders (Corstophine, Mountford,
Tomlinson, Waller, & Meyer, 2007; Hay & Williams, 2013). More distress
may indicate greater susceptibility to mass media (Corcoran, Crusius, &
Mussweiler, 2011) and accessing social media websites, such as Facebook,
which in turn has been associated with greater distress (Chen & Lee, 2013).
Given the role distress plays in mental health and well-being, as well as its
association with social media usage and eating disorders, distress is an
important aspect to investigate when researching behavior that may lead to
eating disorder onset.
Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2015) conducted an experiment involving a
large group of female participants who either viewed a set of “fitspiration”
Instagram images (oriented toward fit instead of thin appearance) or looked
at traveling images. Those exposed to fitspiration images reported greater
body dissatisfaction, lower mood and decreased self-esteem around their
appearance. Thus, given the widespread and frequent use of social media
websites, it is important to understand whether exposure to thinspirational
and bodybuilding material is contributing to eating disorder risk (Knauss
et al., 2007).

Study overview
The current study sought to replicate and extend Tiggemann and
Zaccardo’s (2015) research, but we also included males to investigate the
impact of bodybuilding Instagram posts. The present study aimed to
address the following research question – does exposure of males and
females to the images of difficult-to-accomplish beauty ideals lead to body
4 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

image issues, namely a dissatisfaction with self-image, a preference for and

preoccupation with more idealistic shapes?
Negative body image may be perpetuated and reinforced by an atten-
tional bias, defined as the tendency to selectively attend to disorder-relevant
stimuli (Smeets, Roefs, van Furth, & Jansen, 2008). This is relevant as body
objectification is a common feature of eating disorders and typically
involves isolating and evaluating individual body parts (Ghaznavi & Taylor,
2015). Since elucidating the role of attentional bias could help to identify
risk and maintenance factors in body dissatisfaction (Rodgers & Dubois,
2016), the present study also monitored the attention and deliberation
processes while selecting the ideal body shape. Longer times deliberating
may either be due to greater susceptibility to mass media or due to a social
comparison process triggered by acute stress from viewing difficult-to-
attain beauty ideals (Corcoran et al., 2011). We hypothesized that exposure
to thin-ideal and muscular-ideal imagery would cause both female and
male participants to spend more time in deliberation and consequently
choose a body shape similar to the ideal images depicted.

Materials and methods

Participants
This study was advertised from New Zealand, but the online sample was
collected from an internationally available public online noticeboard
(Reddit). Participants were recreational Internet users who partook in the
online survey, which was advertised and presented in English language.
The total sample for the present study was 200 respondents (74 males and
126 females) with a mean age of 24.10 years (SD ¼ 7.48). No incentives
were offered for participation. The study was approved by Auckland
University of Technology Ethics Committee (AUTEC). With this sample
size, a sensitivity analysis using Gpower indicated an ability to detect effects
with 80% power at 0.05 level of significance.

Measures
Stimulus material
Three sets of stimulus materials were compiled for the study, each contain-
ing 19 images originally sourced from publicly available Instagram profiles.
The thinspiration image set was made up of 19 pictures of females with
thin-ideal bodies from the “thinspiration” hashtag. The bodybuilding image
set was made up of 19 pictures of males with muscular-ideal bodies from
the “bodybuilding” hashtag. The house image set was made up of 19 pic-
tures of various external shots of houses from the “house” hashtag. Images
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 5

of houses without people on it were chosen as neutral stimuli for the con-
trol group as they would not provide ideal bodies for viewers to compare
themselves to. Initial sets of 40 images per category were rated by a panel
of two women and one man, all recreational internet users in their 20 s.
Quality and visual appeal of images were rated on a 5-point Likert scale
(from 1 – very poor, to 5 – excellent). This was done to ensure the final
sets of images did not vary in perceived quality or visual appeal. The final
sets of images were similar for perceived quality, (F(2,54)¼0.734, p¼.485)
(thinspiration M ¼ 3.65, SD ¼ 0.63; bodybuilding M ¼ 3.47, SD ¼ 0.46;
houses M ¼ 3.47, SD ¼ 0.48), and similar for visual appeal (F(2,54)¼0.380,
p¼.686) (thinspiration M ¼ 3.63, SD ¼ 0.69; bodybuilding M ¼ 3.49,
SD ¼ 0.24; houses M ¼ 3.54, SD ¼ 0.47).
To ensure that participants attended to the images and evaluated them,
participants were required to rate images using semantic differential scales
(Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957). Participants had to rate each image
on 5-point scales separately for “strong-weak” (potency), “active-passive”
(activity), and “good-bad” (evaluation). Participants that did not rate these
images were not included in the data set.

Psychological distress
The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to determine a
person’s level of general distress (Kessler et al., 2003). This brief 10-item
scale effectively measures distress and the severity of general psychological
symptoms across the 28 days prior to the questionnaire (e.g. “In the past
4 weeks, about how often did you feel nervous?”). Answers are rated along
a 1–5 scale, from “none of the time” to “all of the time”. Higher scores
indicate greater distress. Andrews and Slade (2001) obtained a correlation
of 0.30 between the K10 and frequency of consultations for a mental health
problem. The K10 has been found to correlate .37 with an eating disorder
inventory (Hay & Williams, 2013) and patients with eating disorder symp-
toms have significantly higher scores on the K10 (Mitchison, Dawson,
Hand, Mond, & Hay, 2016). Andrews and Slade (2001) described cutoff
scores according to normative data from the Australian national survey.
They found scores under 20 were likely to be well, while scores 20–24,
25–29 and 30 or over indicate a mild, moderate or severe mental disorder
respectively. In addition, good psychometric measures of K10 in Australian
population were reported by Slade, Grove, and Burgess (2011). For the cur-
rent study, under 20 was used as the cutoff to indicate not distressed par-
ticipants (denoting “well”), while 20 or over indicated potential distress. In
the present sample, the K10 obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of .91, which
indicates a high level of internal consistency.
6 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

Drive for thinness

Drive for Thinness subscale of the Eating Disorder Inventory (Garner,
Olmstead, & Polivy, 1983) was used to assess eating disorder pathology,
risk and desire to be thin (e.g. “I am terrified of gaining weight”). This sub-
scale consists of seven items, with answers ranging from “always” (1) to
“never” (6). Higher scores indicate a greater eating disorder risk
(Tiggemann & Pickering, 1996). This scale has been used as a robust meas-
ure in a range of eating disorder research (Tiggemann & Pickering, 1996;
Wiederman & Pryor, 2000). In the current sample, this scale obtained a
good overall Cronbach’s alpha of .79.

Body image dissatisfaction

Female participants were directed to the Body Dissatisfaction subscale of
the Eating Disorder Inventory (Garner et al., 1983), a 9-item measure that
reliably assesses participant satisfaction with a range of body part shapes
and size (e.g. “I think that my stomach is too big”). Participants answered
on a scale from “always” (1) to “never” (6), and higher average scores indi-
cate greater body dissatisfaction. In this sample, the questionnaire obtained
a good Cronbach’s alpha of .88.
The Male Body Attitudes Scale (Tylka, Bergeron, & Schwartz, 2005) was
used to assess body dissatisfaction in male participants (e.g. “I wish my
arms were stronger”). In 24 items, on a 1–6 scale from “always” to “never”,
male participants provided their answers for dissatisfaction with muscular-
ity, height, and body fat. Higher average scores indicate greater body dissat-
isfaction. In the current study, this questionnaire obtained a good
Cronbach’s alpha of .82.

Outline figure rating scale

The Stunkard outline figure rating scale (Mutale, Dunn, Stiller, & Larkin,
2016) consists of images depicting a row of line-drawn bodies, ranging
from very underweight (1) through to very overweight (9). It is a method
to evaluate body image, beauty ideals and body dissatisfaction in males and
females. Participants selected a figure that represented their preferred figure
and also selected the figure they preferred for the opposite sex.

Photorealistic figure rating scale

Photorealistic figure rating scales were sourced from Harris, Bradlyn,
Coffman, Gunel, and Cottrell (2008), who developed their scale to more
realistically depict a range of body weights for body image research. The
scale was constructed using pictures of adults with known BMI scores to
create male and female figure rating scales. There were 10 standardized
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 7

figures, each with a composite face that ranged from underweight to class
III obesity. By administering this to a large sample of adults, Harris et al.
(2008) found the scale had strong psychometric properties. In the present
sample, the Photorealistic figure rating scale correlated significantly
(r ¼ .769, n ¼ 81, p < .001) with the Stunkard Figure Outline rating scale
(Mutale et al., 2016).

Procedure
Participants reported their age and gender in order to characterize the sam-
ple. Participants then answered the K10 to determine how distressed they
were, and indicated their preferred body shape on a Stunkard outline figure
rating scale. Participants were then randomly allocated to one of two
experimental conditions, either viewing house images (control group) or
ideal body images (experimental group). To randomly allocate participants
into a condition, a question asked whether the day of their date of birth
falls on an even numbered or odd numbered day. If the day they were
born was an even number, the questionnaire branched, and they viewed
the neutral stimuli (images of houses). If the day they were born was an
odd number, the questionnaire branched, and they viewed material
designed to influence body image: either thinspirational content if they
were female, or bodybuilding content if they were male.
Female participants then responded to the Drive for Thinness scale and
the Body Dissatisfaction Subscale. Male participants completed the Drive
for Thinness scale and the Male Body Attitudes Scale. Finally, participants
were presented with photorealistic figure rating scales and asked for their
ideal body type, and then, the body they would prefer for the opposite sex.
For photorealistic rating scales, Qualtrics recorded the location of the cur-
sor when the mouse was clicked, and the time spent on that web page
before clicking the mouse. Qualtrics produced a response density distribu-
tion (heat map) that indicates where more clicks had occurred. The data
collected from these measures were imported into SPSS version 24. All
measures, manipulations and exclusions in the study are reported.

Results
Semantic differential
Participants were asked to evaluate images along dimensions employed by
the Semantic Differential (Osgood et al., 1957). As a manipulation check, a
2
2
2 Gender by Idealistic Images by Distress between group measures
ANOVA was used to examine how the rated images were viewed by partic-
ipants. As the Semantic Differential has three orthogonal dimensions, an
8 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

Figure 1. Mean ± standard errors of ratings of body-ideal and control images by male and
female participants on Potency, Activity and Evaluation dimensions.

analysis of Potency, Activity, and Evaluative ratings were conducted separ-

ately. As will be shown below, the semantic differential ratings indicated
that images of body builders were viewed as strong and active by males.
Females viewed thinspirational images as more active, but weaker than
images of houses. Females evaluated thinspirational images more negatively
than houses, as shown on Figure 1.

Potency
The assumption of the homogeneity of variance was not violated according
to the Levene’s test (F(7,192) ¼ 1.644, p ¼ .125). There was a significant
effect of Idealistic Images on ratings of potency (F(1,192) ¼ 16.337,
p < .001, gp2 ¼ .08). Idealistic images (M ¼ 3.63) were rated as being stron-
ger than images of houses (M ¼ 3.22). There was a significant Gender by
Idealistic Images interaction (F(1,192) ¼ 55.063, p < .001, gp2 ¼ .22). Simple
main effects indicated that images of body builders were rated as being
“stronger” than images of houses by males (F(1,192) ¼ 59.248, p < .05), but
females viewed thinspirational images as being weaker than houses
(F(1,192) ¼ 8.235, p < .05).

Activity
For ratings of activity the assumption of the homogeneity of variance was
not violated according to the Levene’s test (F(7,192) ¼ .728, p ¼ .649). There
was a significant effect of Idealistic Images on ratings of activity
(F(1,192) ¼ 56.278, p < .001, gp2 ¼ .23). Idealistic images (M ¼ 3.70) were
rated more active than images of houses (M ¼ 2.83). There was a significant
Gender by Idealistic Images interaction (F(1,192) ¼ 24.598, p < .001,
gp2 ¼ .11). Simple main effects indicated that images of body builders were
rated as being more active than images of houses by males
(F(1,192) ¼ 69.930, p < .05). Females also saw thinspirational images as
being more active than images of houses (F(1,192) ¼ 4.648, p < .05).
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 9

Evaluative
The assumption of the homogeneity of variance for evaluative ratings was
not violated according to the Levene’s test (F(7,192) ¼ .545, p ¼ .800). There
was a significant effect of Idealistic Images on evaluative ratings
(F(1,192) ¼ 5.083, p ¼ .025, gp2 ¼ .03). Idealistic body images (M ¼ 3.46)
were rated less positively than houses (M ¼ 3.73). The significant Gender
by Idealistic Images interaction (F(1192) ¼ 5.782, p ¼ .017, gp2 ¼ .03) was
decomposed using simple main effects. Females rated thinspirational
images less positively than houses (F(1,192) ¼ 4.251, p < .05), but this effect
was much less noticeable for males, who rated idealistic images of body
builders comparably to houses (F(1,192) ¼ 0.011, p > .05).

Distress and body dissatisfaction

As Drive for Thinness was not homogenous according to a Levene’s test
(F(3,194) ¼ 14.688, p < .001) it was square root transformed, whereupon
the assumption of homogeneity was met (F(3,194) ¼ 1.925, p ¼ .127). But
given that the effects were the same for the transformed data as for the
untransformed data, we report the untransformed data for purposes of
interpretability.
A two-way analysis of variance was conducted upon the transformed
data to determine any differences in Drive for Thinness between genders
or levels of distress. Although the numbers of women and men in two lev-
els of distress differed (N ¼ 57 of nondistressed women; N ¼ 48 of nondis-
tressed men; N ¼ 69 of distressed women; N ¼ 26 of distressed men), the
Leven’s test of variance homogeneity was not statistically significant,
F(1,140) ¼ 2.164, p ¼ .144. The 2
2 between group ANOVA showed sig-
nificant main effects of gender, F(1,194) ¼ 16.394, p<.001, gp2 ¼ .08, and
distress, F(1,194) ¼ 23.231, p < .001, gp2 ¼ .11, but not an interaction,
F(1,194) ¼ 1.857, p¼.175, gp2¼.01. Females (M ¼ 7.30) and more distressed
participants (M ¼ 7.39) had greater drives for thinness than males
(M ¼ 3.60) and nondistressed participants (M ¼ 3.27).
As body dissatisfaction was evaluated with gender specific instruments,
the effects of distress on body dissatisfaction were examined separately for
males and females. Independent t-tests considered the effect of distress level
on female body dissatisfaction. Females who were more distressed
(M ¼ 36.54) had significantly higher scores on the Body Dissatisfaction
Scale than less-distressed (M ¼ 30.05) female participants, t(123) ¼
3.867, p < .001.
Males completed the Male Body Attitude Scale. Box’s M indicated that
covariance matrices of distressed and non-distressed males did not differ
significantly (Box’s M ¼ 4.311, F(6,15705.869) ¼ 0.680, p ¼ .666). For the
10 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

Figure 2. Heat map over the photorealistic figure rating scale depicting where the most mouse
clicks have occurred for females picking the ideal female body and males picking the ideal
male body (top – control group; bottom – experimental group).

males, oneway multivariate analysis of variance showed that those who

were more distressed were significantly more concerned about their body
muscularity, height, and body fat, K ¼ .763, F(3,68) ¼ 7.052, p < .001,
gp2 ¼ .24. Univariate tests indicated that more distressed males specifically
wanted to be more muscular (F(1,70) ¼ 16.374, p<.001, gp2 ¼ .19), taller
(F(1,70) ¼ 7.506, p ¼ .008, gp2 ¼ .24), and have less body fat (F(1,70) ¼
14.634, p<.001, gp2 ¼ .17).

Photorealistic figure ratings

To determine the impact of distress level and exposure to idealistic body
images on preferred photorealistic figure for oneself, a 2 (gender)
2 (dis-
tress)
2 (image type) factorial ANOVA was conducted. For the preferred
photorealistic figure for oneself, the results of Levene’s test did not meet
the assumption of the homogeneity of variances (F(7,192) ¼ 2.501,
p ¼ .018), hence this variable was subjected to a square root transform,
whereupon Levene’s test indicated it was now homogenous
(F(7,192) ¼ 1.228, p ¼ .289). As the pattern of findings was the same for
transformed and untransformed data, for interpretability we report the
findings based on untransformed numbers.
There were significant main effects of gender, F(1,192) ¼ 95.691, p < .001,
gp ¼ .33, and distress, F(1,192) ¼ 8.680, p ¼ .004, gp2 ¼ .04, upon photoreal-
2

istic figure preferences. Females selected thinner images for themselves (i.e.
pixels closer to screen origin on the left of the heatmap) (M ¼ 105.4) than
males (M ¼ 196.1). Distressed individuals (M ¼ 137.1) wanted to be thinner
than the less distressed individuals (M ¼ 164.4).
The effect of image type approached significance, F(1,192) ¼ 3.804,
p ¼ .053, gp2 ¼ .02. Although only a trend, participants that were exposed to
idealistic body images tended to select a slimmer figure as ideal
(M ¼ 141.7), when compared to those who viewed images of houses
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 11

Figure 3. Mean ± standard error of time spent deliberating on the photorealistic figure rating
scale according to gender and experimental manipulation.

(M ¼ 159.8). This was more evident in the heatmaps of female participants

than male participants, as shown on Figure 2. No significant interactions
were observed between exposure to idealistic body images and gender,
F(1,192) ¼ 1.455, p ¼ .229, gp2 ¼ .01, distress and gender, F(1,192) ¼ 0.630,
p ¼ .428, gp2 ¼ .00, nor between distress and exposure to idealistic body
images, F(1,192) ¼ 1.878, p ¼ .172, gp2 ¼ .01.
To examine preoccupation, a 2
2
2 factorial ANOVA was conducted
to investigate the effects of gender, distress, and image type on the time
spent deliberating on the photorealistic figure rating scale. The time spent
deliberating was homogenous according to a Levene’s test (F(7,192) ¼ 0.948,
p ¼ .471). The main effect of distress was not significant, F(1,192) ¼ 0.473,
p ¼ .492, gp2 ¼ .00. However, there were significant main effects of gender,
F(1,192) ¼ 5.977, p ¼ .015, gp2 ¼ .03, and image type, F(1,192) ¼ 4.698,
p ¼ .031, gp2 ¼ .02. Females and participants exposed to idealistic body
images spent more time contemplating their preferred shape on the photo-
realistic rating scales than males and those exposed to images of houses,
respectively. There was a significant gender by exposure interaction,
F(1,192) ¼ 7.043, p ¼ .009, gp2 ¼ .04. The interaction is shown in Figure 3
and decomposed using simple main effects. Females exposed to beauty
ideals took longer deliberating than females who viewed houses,
F(1,192) ¼ 16.800, p < .01, while male deliberation upon exposure to images
of body builders was not significantly different from male deliberation after
exposure to house images, F(1,192) ¼ 0.107, p > .05.

Female versus male figure preferences

To demonstrate that concerns about body shape can be unrealistic, inde-
pendent t-tests were used to compare females’ preferred body shape on the
12 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

Table 1. Means (SE) in Pixels for Preferred Figures in Female and Male Participants
(Photorealistic Outline Figures).
Females (n ¼ 126) Males (n ¼ 74)
Preferred figure – oneself 99.35 (5.01) 198.64 (8.00)
Preferred figure – opposite sex 167.23 (5.72) 152.47 (8.37)
Preferred figure after exposure to house images 114.09 (9.827) 203.82 (11.013)
(n ¼ 47) (n ¼ 34)
Preferred figure after exposure to idealistic images 90.58 (5.264) 194.23 (11.555)
(n ¼ 79) (n ¼ 40)

photorealistic scale with the body shape preferred by males. Females pre-
ferred (M ¼ 99.3) a significantly slimmer figure for themselves than the
males preferred for women (M ¼ 152.5), t(198) ¼ 5.801, p < .001. And males
preferred a significantly larger (M ¼ 198.6) figure for themselves than the
figure that females preferred for men (M ¼ 167.2), t(198) ¼ 3.252, p ¼ .0013
(Table 1).

Discussion
This study considered reactions to images portraying thin-ideal and muscu-
lar-ideals, and sought to understand the effects of ideal images upon pre-
ferred shapes and any preoccupation with shape in men and women. Males
viewed images of body builders as strong and active according to Semantic
Differential ratings. By contrast females viewed thinspirational images as
active, but thinspirational images were rated as weaker and less positively
evaluated than the neutral images of houses. Moreover, psychologically dis-
tressed participants appeared more susceptible to idealistic physical stand-
ards and showed greater drive for thinness. In particular, distressed females
were more dissatisfied with their body and distressed males were dissatis-
fied with their muscularity, height, and body fat. Females had a higher
drive for thinness and spent more time contemplating their preferred shape
after being exposed to thinspiration images. In addition, exposure to ideal-
istic standards of appearance tended to cause a shift toward desiring slim-
mer figures and significantly increased the time females spent
contemplating body size. These self-imposed expectations of body image
are unrealistic because female participants chose a slimmer figure as an
ideal than the figure males actually preferred for women. And male partici-
pants selected larger ideal figures than the figures females actually preferred
for men.

Body shape and distress

As predicted, females in the present study had a greater drive for thinness
and reported more body dissatisfaction. This finding is in accord with
sociocultural claims that females experience greater pressure to meet beauty
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 13

standards (Knauss et al., 2007; Ravary et al., 2019). More generally, while
some female distress may be accounted for by anticipated rejection
(Blodorn et al., 2016) and inability meeting ideal body standards, male dis-
tress is less likely to be explained by appearance expectations (Lawler &
Nixon, 2011; Strahan, Wilson, Cressman, & Buote, 2006). Taking sociocul-
tural perspectives into account, male distress can be associated with mascu-
linity constructs that require that men should restrict emotions and attain
wealth and social status (Wester, Christianson, Vogel, & Wei, 2007). This
may be further reinforced by the fact that for males, resources are benefi-
cial in attracting a long-term partner (Schmitt, 2014; Waynforth, 2001).
Nevertheless, in the current study, distressed males were more concerned
that they should be taller, more muscular, and have less body fat.
High-distressed participants preferred slimmer figures than low-dis-
tressed participants in the present study. A potential explanation of such
findings may be that distressed people make more social comparisons
(Corcoran et al., 2011), and those individuals more driven to make social
comparisons are more prone to exposing themselves to beauty ideals in
media, and subsequently experience body dissatisfaction and drive for thin-
ness (Cohen, 2006). This suggests an unfortunate cycle in which distressed
individuals may expose themselves to idealistic body presentations, causing
them to feel worse about themselves.
Indeed, the attainment of these ideal shapes is unrealistic. The current
study replicated reports that women’s ideal female body was thinner than
men’s ideal female body. These findings are in keeping with other studies
(Cohn & Adler, 1992; Fallon & Rozin, 1985; Knauss et al., 2007; Phelps
et al., 1993; Rozin & Fallon, 1988). This suggests that the opposite sex pre-
fers more attainable body shapes for potential mates than individuals have
for themselves. In addition, misperceptions of the ideal bodies seem to be
associated with unhealthy eating attitudes in women (Bergstrom,
Neighbors, & Lewis, 2004), which is why it is important to recognize that
pattern when examining ideal body preferences and eating dis-
order correlates.

Figure preference
The photorealistic figure rating scales indicated that female participants
preferred a slimmer figure than males, and there was a tendency for partic-
ipants that were exposed to idealistic images to prefer even slimmer figures.
This suggests that acute exposure to beauty ideals may have some impact
on participants. However, the effect of ideal body imagery was less discern-
ible for male participants, who spent comparable amounts of time selecting
preferred shape after viewing houses or bodybuilding imagery. Moreover,
14 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

as opposed to males, it is widely known that females are more susceptible

to exposure to media influences (Rodgers, McLean, & Paxton, 2015) and
recognized as experiencing greater pressure to meet beauty ideals (Cohen,
2006). Strahan et al. (2006) observed that, while females are usually pre-
sented with a narrow definition of what a beautiful woman looks like –
young, tall, and thin – males are presented with beauty-ideal cultural
norms that are more relaxed and malleable. Across mass media, many dif-
ferent kinds of males with varying physical attributes are depicted as
“worthy” and attractive to females. This means that, while the ideal body
for males is a mesomorphic build, they may still feel accepted and attractive
with a body that doesn’t fit in that category.
Longitudinal research by Rodgers et al. (2015) found that beauty ideal
internalization occurs before social comparisons and that both factors con-
tribute to body dissatisfaction. People are more likely to make social com-
parisons within areas of importance or relevance to them (Rodgers et al.,
2015), and females have been experimentally shown to make more social
comparisons about appearance than males do (Strahan et al., 2006). This
may mean that males are less likely to make appearance-related social com-
parisons, and more likely to make social comparisons based on masculinity
constructs such as wealth and status, as this is more salient to their self-
esteem (Wester et al., 2007). Although the males in the present study
appeared unaffected by bodybuilding content, experimental research has
shown other samples of males to be influenced by ideal bodies in media,
and this effect is more pronounced with younger males (Blond, 2008;
Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2004; Tylka, 2011). Additionally, many online
communities exist promoting pro-muscularity, with cognitively and physic-
ally demanding advice to obtain larger muscular bodies (Murray et al.,
2016). It may be that younger, distressed males seek out these websites as
they are more driven to make social comparisons, and they may subse-
quently internalize and idealize the mesomorphic shape. Nevertheless, fur-
ther research is needed to establish this relationship.

Preoccupation
Thinspirational images were potentially distressing to women, being eval-
uated less positively than the neutral images of houses. Viewing thinspira-
tion led females to spend more time deliberating over their preferred
shape. Therefore, thinspiration created a preoccupation in females as they
took a significantly longer time deliberating than those that viewed houses.
When this finding is taken together with that of females displaying a trend
toward desiring a slimmer figure after viewing thin body images, we can
infer that body dissatisfaction could have been experimentally induced.
 THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 15

Likewise, Cho and Lee (2013) showed that women and men who are less
satisfied with their bodies will pay more attention to figures they find
attractive. Also, Rodgers and DuBois (2016) conducted a recent systematic
review of biases in body dissatisfaction research and found that attentional
biases and body dissatisfaction can be manipulated. They further concluded
that the research shows strong support for attentional biases among indi-
viduals with greater body dissatisfaction toward appearance and body
image related stimuli. Results of the present study further support previ-
ously mentioned findings and suggest that acute exposure to thinspiration
can induce body dissatisfaction and increase the salience of body-image
stimuli in a way that encourages allocation of more attention to these stim-
uli. This only affected female participants, furthering theories that beauty
ideal exposure can lead to greater motivation towards social comparison in
those who are distressed and uncertain (Corcoran et al., 2011).
The present study also demonstrates the real potential to monitor online
activity and intervene (Engel et al., 2016). Given that preoccupation with
weight, shape, and appearance is a significant predictor of disorder onset
(Rodgers & DuBois, 2016), the present study demonstrates how the time
spent on pro-ana or thinspirational websites (Borzekowski et al., 2010)
could be monitored and targeted advertising (Boerman, Kruikemeier, &
Zuiderveen Borgesius, 2017) could deliver appropriately framed and
worded disclaimers (Smith & Rieger, 2006; Thaler & Sunstein, 2017) or
messages of affirmation (Logel, Kathmandu, & Cohen, 2019). Women
should be aware that imagery on Instagram might not be realistic (Webber,
2000) and that it is not unusual for social media users to post only the best
pictures of their appearance (Vogel, Rose, Roberts, & Eckles, 2014).
Additionally, since high-distressed participants showed a tendency toward
desiring a thinner body after viewing idealistic beauty imagery, those who
experience a state of psychological distress may need to limit their time on
social media (Krasnova, Widjaja, Buxmann, Wenninger, & Benbasat, 2015)
in order to prevent potential body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness.
Some limitations of the current study should be noted. Firstly, although
age and gender were recorded, further demographic information such as
educational attainment could have been useful. Secondly, the instruments
used to measure the desired body size might not have been sensitive
enough to detect the differences between experimental and control group,
which could explain the absence of significant effects of thin-ideal and
muscular-ideal exposure on preferred shape. Alongside this, the photoreal-
istic figure rating scale for men did not provide a shape that would repre-
sent the muscular-ideal, as the scale was based on BMI instead. In
addition, research have shown a limited evidence of the K10 validity in a
culturally diverse populations (Stolk, Kaplan, & Szwarc, 2014). Hence, due
16 K. PRNJAK ET AL.

to the advertisement and recruitment of participants via internationally

available website, our findings could potentially be limited by the fact that
culturally diverse individuals had access to online survey used for
data collection.

Conclusions
Exposure to idealistic body imagery had a significant effect on females.
Idealistic body images were evaluated less positively by women. Females
desired slimmer figures for themselves and spent longer contemplating
their preferred body size. Bodybuilding images did not influence male fig-
ure preference or time spent choosing preferred shape. However, partici-
pants (both male and female) that were more distressed also experienced
more concerns regarding physical appearance. It seems that exposure to
beauty ideals in media can lead to greater motivation towards social com-
parison in those who are distressed, and might consequently increase their
body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID
Katarina Prnjak http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6152-5025

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