Study Reveals the Link Between TV Consumption and a Desire for Thinner Women
A study from the University of Durham in the UK published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that the more television we watch, the more we prefer slimmer female bodies.
Researchers discovered that people in several remote villages in Nicaragua in Central America, with minimal access to TV, preferred women with more flesh on their bodies, while those in the same communities who regularly watched TV preferred thinner women.
Based on the study, scientists were able to demonstrate that body ideals are flexible and based on what our eyes consume. With a plethora of thin women on TV, the more television the Nicaraguans watched, the more they preferred slimmer women.
“If there’s something that’s universal about attraction, it is how flexible it is,” Lynda Boothroyd, the study’s lead author and professor of psychology at Durham, told CNN News.
iGirl Magazine searched Pexels, the popular online media provider for full-body women photos, and the search results delivered pictures of very fit slim women. Searches at Pixabay and Unsplash, two online popular image providers, delivered similar results.
Boothroyd wants TV and advertising managers to use actors, presenters and models of all shapes and sizes to prevent the stigmatization of larger bodies.
“There needs to be a shift towards a ‘health at every size’ attitude, and the media has an important role to play in that,” she said in a statement.
