![Investigating individual differences in psychological and physiological responses to animated
images of underweight, average, or overweight female bodies
Bettina Urlbauer*
Dr. Jemma Harris*, Dr. Jennie Brown*, Dr. Mary-Jane Budd*, and Mara Scherer*
*School of Psychology, University of East London
Correspondence to: J.L.Brown@uel.ac.uk, J.Harris@uel.ac.uk
Results & Reflections
Most experimental studies of body image and the media report high body
dissatisfaction due to the media's influence of the 'thin ideal'. Increased body
dissatisfaction has been associated with the exposure of thin models in music
videos in magazines and in commercials of thin women on television
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,12]. Next to body dissatisfaction, these influences can lead to
decreased self-esteem, greater body importance, restrained eating behaviour,
more critical self-evaluation, increased anxiety levels and more social
comparison as former research has shown.
Exposure to heavier or larger models, however, can produce the opposite
effect. (Reasons for this phenomenon are still unclear, however, possible
explanatory factors might be restrained eating behaviour, neuroticism, social
comparison, anxiety, internalisations, etc., as earlier studies have shown [8, 9,
10].
Some research has shown reverse outcomes: some women show anxiety,
stress and higher body dissatisfaction when exposed to the images of larger
females. This has been linked to women who restrained eaters or who have
disturbed eating behaviour, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or
obesity [ 6,11,12,13].
Such research suggests that there are individual differences in the ways that
people respond to images of different sized bodies. The current project
investigated how differences in body mass index (BMI) relate to responses to
viewing different sized bodies. The current study aimed to compare the
responses of individuals classified as overweight with those who are not
overweight as this area is currently under-researched [14].
Hypotheses:
1. Attentional bias towards images of thin bodies will be stronger for
overweight women compared to non-overweight women. This difference
will also be observed in neurophysiological markers of attention.
2. Compared to non-overweight women, when exposed to images of thin
bodies overweight women will show increased body dissatisfaction,
lowered mood, and increased attentional bias towards thin bodies.
3. These effects will be reversed (or will become non-significant) when
viewing images of overweight bodies.
Background
Procedure: Each participant will be asked to complete the first set of questionnaires and will be fitted with an EEG net
prior to completing an attentional dot-probe task. A conductive gel will be applied to the sensors that were placed on
the scalp in order to record the electrical responses. In the attentional task participants will be presented with two
body images (one neutral and the other either underweight or overweight) followed by the presentation of two dots
placed either horizontally (..) or vertically (:). The task will run via Matlab. Participants will be asked to categorise the
placement of the dots as quickly and accurately as possible by using the allocated response keys. Participants will then
be exposed to a set of images of bodies that are either underweight or overweight. Participants will then be asked to
complete some of the initial questionnaires and the computerised attentional task again. Participation will last
approximately one hour.
I. Questionnaire measures:
1. Demographic measures (including weight and height)
2. Body Dissatisfaction measure
3. Mood
II. Attentional task with EEG recording
III. Exposure to either underweight or overweight images
IV. Repeat of questionnaire measure (I) and attentional task and EEG recording (III)
.
Figure 2 (above): Diagram explaining timings of dot probe task (left) and an example of images used in the study
(right: overweight vs. neutral)
EEG recording: Event related potentials (ERPs) reflect neural activity within the brain that is related to a sensory,
cognitive or motor event. The current study will examine the N2PC which reflects attentional selection – indicative of
whether attention is focused on a target, and is measured as a negative-going deflection in amplitude approximately
200-300ms after the onset of a target [15], primarily observed in posterior electrode sites [16].
P1 (a positive-going amplitude approximately 100-130ms after stimulus onset) and is always present for visually
presented stimuli. It can be enhanced due to the presentation of emotional stimuli indicating an increase in the use of
attentional resources. In other words, an attentional bias towards the negative stimuli [17].
Results: For progress and further development of the study, please contact the main investigators.
Method (continued)
1. Bell, B.T., Lawton, R., Dittmar, H. (2007). The impact of thin models in music videos on adolescent
girls’ body dissatisfaction. Body Image, 4, 137-145.
2. Friederich et al. (2007). I’m not as slim as that girl: Neural bases of body shape self-comparison to
media images. Neuroimage, 37, 674-671.
3. Ip, K., Jarry, J.L.. (2008). Investment in body image for self-definition results in greater vulnerability to
the thin media than does investment in appearance management. Body Image, 5, 59-69.
4. Tucci, S., Peters, J. (2008). Media influences on body satisfaction in female students. Psicothema,
20(4), 521-524.
5. Strahan, E.J., Spence, S.J., Zanna, M.P. (2007). Don’t take another bite: How sociocultural norms for
appearance affect women’s eating behaviour. Body Image, 4, 331-342.
6. Anschutz, D.J., Rutger-Engels, C.M.E., Becker, E.S., van Strien, T. (2008). The bold and the beautiful.
Influence of body size of televised media models on body dissatisfaction and actual food intake.
Appetite, 51, 530-537.
7. Diedrichs, P.C., Lee, C. (2010). GI Joe or Average Joe? The impact of average-size and muscular male
fashion models on men’s and women’s body image advertisement effectiveness. Body image, 7, 218-
226.
8. Roberts, A., Good, E. (2010). Media images and female body dissatisfaction: The moderating effects of
the Five-Factor traits. Eating behaviours, 11, 211-216.
9. Want, S.C. (2009). Meta-analytic moderators of experimental exposure to media portrayals of womeni
on female appearance satisfaction: Social comparisons as automatic processes. Body Image, 6, 257-
269.
10. Vocks, S., Legenbauer, T., Heil, A. (2007).Food intake affects state body image: Impact of restraint
eating patterns and concerns about eating, weight and shape. Appetite, 49, 467-475.
11. Cserjési et al. (2010). Explicit vs. implicit body image evaluation in restrictive anorexia nervosa.
Psychiatry research, 175, 148-153.
12. Friederich et al. (2010). Neural correlates of body dissatisfaction in anorexia nervosa.
Neuropsychologia, 48, 2878-2885.
13. Dalley, S. E., Buunk, A.P., Umit, T. (2009). Female body dissatisfaction after exposure to overweight
and this media images: The role of body mass index and neuroticism. Personality and Individual
Differences, 47, 47-51.
14. Glauert et al. (2010). Body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies. International Journal of
Eating Disorders 43(1), 42–49.
15. Luck, S.J. (2005). An introduction to the event-related potential technique. Cambridge, The MIT Press.
16. Fox, E., Nazanin, D., Leor, S. (2008). Trait anxiety modulates the electrophysiological indices of rapid
spatial orienting towards angry faces. Neuroreport 19(3), 259-263.
17. Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Glickman, S. (2005). Attentional bias in anxiety: A behavioural and ERP study.
Brain and Cognition 59(1), 11-22.
References
Acknowledgments
A big thank you to my supervisors, Jennie Brown, Jemma Harris and Mary-Jane
Budd and to my friend and collaborative internship partner Mara Scherer.
Data collection for this EEG study is still underway. Technical problems
prevented the research team collecting EEG data during the Summer.
However, study materials were prepared and EEG training was
completed.
Results of the attentional dot-probe task (which formed a pilot for this
study) can be viewed in the poster of the collaborative research intern
Mara Scherer. For further questions about the progress of this research
please contact the main investigators.
The attentional dot-probe results are encouraging and they suggest
that this line of research will be a fruitful avenue for us to develop a
deeper understanding of individual differences in responses to viewing
underweight and overweight bodies.
The research internship “Investigating individual differences in
psychological and physiological responses to animated images of
underweight, average, or overweight female bodies” has helped me to
get a deeper insight into how research works in the real life, increased
my knowledge and skills and even let me gain new skills, such as EEG.
Method
Participants & design: In this study 60+ females over the age of 18 years will be recruited.
After data collection, the participants will be split into groups according to their BMI: with
BMIs of 25 or more reflecting individuals who are classified as overweight or obese and
BMI’s of between 18.5 and 24.9 reflecting non-overweight individuals. Another project will
analyse the data from underweight individuals. Individuals will complete a questionnaire
and will then complete an attentional task whilst wearing an EEG (Electroencephalography)
net, they will then be exposed to either images of thin bodies or overweight bodies and
they will then complete the measures/tasks again.
Neurophysiological measures using EEG nets (see Figure 1):
Figure 1 (above): EEG hairnet (left) and potential locations for situation (right)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/d68d58d9-87ed-46f0-bc4f-26a45af5757c-150901203058-lva1-app6892/85/Bettin-Poster-2-1-320.jpg)
Bettin Poster 2
- 1. Investigating individual differences in psychological and physiological responses to animated images of underweight, average, or overweight female bodies Bettina Urlbauer* Dr. Jemma Harris*, Dr. Jennie Brown*, Dr. Mary-Jane Budd*, and Mara Scherer* *School of Psychology, University of East London Correspondence to: [email protected], [email protected] Results & Reflections Most experimental studies of body image and the media report high body dissatisfaction due to the media's influence of the 'thin ideal'. Increased body dissatisfaction has been associated with the exposure of thin models in music videos in magazines and in commercials of thin women on television [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,12]. Next to body dissatisfaction, these influences can lead to decreased self-esteem, greater body importance, restrained eating behaviour, more critical self-evaluation, increased anxiety levels and more social comparison as former research has shown. Exposure to heavier or larger models, however, can produce the opposite effect. (Reasons for this phenomenon are still unclear, however, possible explanatory factors might be restrained eating behaviour, neuroticism, social comparison, anxiety, internalisations, etc., as earlier studies have shown [8, 9, 10]. Some research has shown reverse outcomes: some women show anxiety, stress and higher body dissatisfaction when exposed to the images of larger females. This has been linked to women who restrained eaters or who have disturbed eating behaviour, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or obesity [ 6,11,12,13]. Such research suggests that there are individual differences in the ways that people respond to images of different sized bodies. The current project investigated how differences in body mass index (BMI) relate to responses to viewing different sized bodies. The current study aimed to compare the responses of individuals classified as overweight with those who are not overweight as this area is currently under-researched [14]. Hypotheses: 1. Attentional bias towards images of thin bodies will be stronger for overweight women compared to non-overweight women. This difference will also be observed in neurophysiological markers of attention. 2. Compared to non-overweight women, when exposed to images of thin bodies overweight women will show increased body dissatisfaction, lowered mood, and increased attentional bias towards thin bodies. 3. These effects will be reversed (or will become non-significant) when viewing images of overweight bodies. Background Procedure: Each participant will be asked to complete the first set of questionnaires and will be fitted with an EEG net prior to completing an attentional dot-probe task. A conductive gel will be applied to the sensors that were placed on the scalp in order to record the electrical responses. In the attentional task participants will be presented with two body images (one neutral and the other either underweight or overweight) followed by the presentation of two dots placed either horizontally (..) or vertically (:). The task will run via Matlab. Participants will be asked to categorise the placement of the dots as quickly and accurately as possible by using the allocated response keys. Participants will then be exposed to a set of images of bodies that are either underweight or overweight. Participants will then be asked to complete some of the initial questionnaires and the computerised attentional task again. Participation will last approximately one hour. I. Questionnaire measures: 1. Demographic measures (including weight and height) 2. Body Dissatisfaction measure 3. Mood II. Attentional task with EEG recording III. Exposure to either underweight or overweight images IV. Repeat of questionnaire measure (I) and attentional task and EEG recording (III) . Figure 2 (above): Diagram explaining timings of dot probe task (left) and an example of images used in the study (right: overweight vs. neutral) EEG recording: Event related potentials (ERPs) reflect neural activity within the brain that is related to a sensory, cognitive or motor event. The current study will examine the N2PC which reflects attentional selection – indicative of whether attention is focused on a target, and is measured as a negative-going deflection in amplitude approximately 200-300ms after the onset of a target [15], primarily observed in posterior electrode sites [16]. P1 (a positive-going amplitude approximately 100-130ms after stimulus onset) and is always present for visually presented stimuli. It can be enhanced due to the presentation of emotional stimuli indicating an increase in the use of attentional resources. In other words, an attentional bias towards the negative stimuli [17]. Results: For progress and further development of the study, please contact the main investigators. Method (continued) 1. Bell, B.T., Lawton, R., Dittmar, H. (2007). The impact of thin models in music videos on adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction. Body Image, 4, 137-145. 2. Friederich et al. (2007). I’m not as slim as that girl: Neural bases of body shape self-comparison to media images. Neuroimage, 37, 674-671. 3. Ip, K., Jarry, J.L.. (2008). Investment in body image for self-definition results in greater vulnerability to the thin media than does investment in appearance management. Body Image, 5, 59-69. 4. Tucci, S., Peters, J. (2008). Media influences on body satisfaction in female students. Psicothema, 20(4), 521-524. 5. Strahan, E.J., Spence, S.J., Zanna, M.P. (2007). Don’t take another bite: How sociocultural norms for appearance affect women’s eating behaviour. Body Image, 4, 331-342. 6. Anschutz, D.J., Rutger-Engels, C.M.E., Becker, E.S., van Strien, T. (2008). The bold and the beautiful. Influence of body size of televised media models on body dissatisfaction and actual food intake. Appetite, 51, 530-537. 7. Diedrichs, P.C., Lee, C. (2010). GI Joe or Average Joe? The impact of average-size and muscular male fashion models on men’s and women’s body image advertisement effectiveness. Body image, 7, 218- 226. 8. Roberts, A., Good, E. (2010). Media images and female body dissatisfaction: The moderating effects of the Five-Factor traits. Eating behaviours, 11, 211-216. 9. Want, S.C. (2009). Meta-analytic moderators of experimental exposure to media portrayals of womeni on female appearance satisfaction: Social comparisons as automatic processes. Body Image, 6, 257- 269. 10. Vocks, S., Legenbauer, T., Heil, A. (2007).Food intake affects state body image: Impact of restraint eating patterns and concerns about eating, weight and shape. Appetite, 49, 467-475. 11. Cserjési et al. (2010). Explicit vs. implicit body image evaluation in restrictive anorexia nervosa. Psychiatry research, 175, 148-153. 12. Friederich et al. (2010). Neural correlates of body dissatisfaction in anorexia nervosa. Neuropsychologia, 48, 2878-2885. 13. Dalley, S. E., Buunk, A.P., Umit, T. (2009). Female body dissatisfaction after exposure to overweight and this media images: The role of body mass index and neuroticism. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 47-51. 14. Glauert et al. (2010). Body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies. International Journal of Eating Disorders 43(1), 42–49. 15. Luck, S.J. (2005). An introduction to the event-related potential technique. Cambridge, The MIT Press. 16. Fox, E., Nazanin, D., Leor, S. (2008). Trait anxiety modulates the electrophysiological indices of rapid spatial orienting towards angry faces. Neuroreport 19(3), 259-263. 17. Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Glickman, S. (2005). Attentional bias in anxiety: A behavioural and ERP study. Brain and Cognition 59(1), 11-22. References Acknowledgments A big thank you to my supervisors, Jennie Brown, Jemma Harris and Mary-Jane Budd and to my friend and collaborative internship partner Mara Scherer. Data collection for this EEG study is still underway. Technical problems prevented the research team collecting EEG data during the Summer. However, study materials were prepared and EEG training was completed. Results of the attentional dot-probe task (which formed a pilot for this study) can be viewed in the poster of the collaborative research intern Mara Scherer. For further questions about the progress of this research please contact the main investigators. The attentional dot-probe results are encouraging and they suggest that this line of research will be a fruitful avenue for us to develop a deeper understanding of individual differences in responses to viewing underweight and overweight bodies. The research internship “Investigating individual differences in psychological and physiological responses to animated images of underweight, average, or overweight female bodies” has helped me to get a deeper insight into how research works in the real life, increased my knowledge and skills and even let me gain new skills, such as EEG. Method Participants & design: In this study 60+ females over the age of 18 years will be recruited. After data collection, the participants will be split into groups according to their BMI: with BMIs of 25 or more reflecting individuals who are classified as overweight or obese and BMI’s of between 18.5 and 24.9 reflecting non-overweight individuals. Another project will analyse the data from underweight individuals. Individuals will complete a questionnaire and will then complete an attentional task whilst wearing an EEG (Electroencephalography) net, they will then be exposed to either images of thin bodies or overweight bodies and they will then complete the measures/tasks again. Neurophysiological measures using EEG nets (see Figure 1): Figure 1 (above): EEG hairnet (left) and potential locations for situation (right)