The effect of the thin body ideal in a media - naïve population 1

The effect of the thin body ideal in a media-naïve population 1 Jean-Luc Jucker, Tracey Thornborrow, Martin J. Tovee, and Lynda G. Boothroyd 2 3 The thin ideal is the western concept of an ideally slim or underweight female body, 4 and its omnipresence in the mass media has a negative impact on women’s health. 5 Media 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. Furthermore, cross-cultural research suggests that the media have similar 8 effects when they are introduced into non-western or non-industrialised societies. 9 No 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. 15 Analyses 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. 19 Up to 30-50% of girls and women from western or industrialised countries have 20 negative body image, which contributes to widespread psychopathologies such as low 21 self-esteem, depression, and disordered eating. One key sociocultural contributor to 22 body dissatisfaction is the thin body ideal and its omnipresence in the mass media. 23 For 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. Furthermore, cross-cultural research has 26 shown that populations with limited access to the media have a higher female body size 27 ideal, and that the introduction of television in previously media-naïve populations is 28 accompanied by an increase in body dissatisfaction and pathological eating attitudes. 29 Although 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), 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. Second, all cross-cultural 36 research using non-western or non-industrialised subjects has been correlational, cross37 sectional, or pseudo-longitudinal, and has therefore failed to establish causation between 38 exposure to the thin ideal and a decrease in female body size ideals. 39 Here we describe the first study to experimentally induce a shift in female body size 40 preferences using thin ideal stimuli in a non-western media-naïve population. To do so, 80 41