Perceptual Not Attitudinal Factors Predict the Accuracy of Estimating Other Women’s Bodies in Both Women With Anorexia Nervosa and Controls

Gledhill, Lucinda J.; George, Hannah R.; Tovée, Martin J.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00997

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…In nonclinical samples, it has been observed that bodies lower in weight than the population mean tend to be overestimated in terms of their weight and size, whereas larger bodies tend to be underestimated. This phenomenon, referred to as contraction bias, has been observed regardless of whether the body being judged belongs to another person (Gledhill et al, 2019) or the observer (Cornelissen, Bester, Cairns, Tovée, & Cornelissen, 2015; Cornelissen et al, 2016). The tendency of perceptual estimates to cluster around the mean of the stimulus set’s objective values has been described for over a century (Hollingworth, 1910; Stevens & Greenbaum, 1966).…”

Section: Other Perceptual Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking at the Figures: Visual Adaptation as a Mechanism for Body-Size and -Shape Misperception

Brooks

Mond

Mitchison

et al. 2019

Perspect Psychol Sci

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Many individuals experience body-size and -shape misperception (BSSM). Body-size overestimation is associated with body dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression, and the development of eating disorders in individuals who desire to be thinner. Similar symptoms have been noted for those who underestimate their muscularity. Conversely, individuals with high body mass indices (BMI) who underestimate their adiposity may not recognize the risks of or seek help for obesity-related medical issues. Although social scientists have examined whether media representations of idealized bodies contribute to the overestimation of fat or underestimation of muscle, other scientists suggest that increases in the prevalence of obesity could explain body-fat underestimation as a form of renormalization. However, these disparate approaches have not advanced our understanding of the perceptual underpinnings of BSSM. Recently, a new unifying account of BSSM has emerged that is based on the long-established phenomenon of visual adaptation, employing psychophysical measurements of perceived size and shape following exposure to “extreme” body stimuli. By inducing BSSM in the laboratory as an aftereffect, this technique is rapidly advancing our understanding of the underlying mental representation of human bodies. This nascent approach provides insight into real-world BSSM and may inform the development of therapeutic and public-health interventions designed to address such perceptual errors.

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Section: Other Perceptual Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking at the Figures: Visual Adaptation as a Mechanism for Body-Size and -Shape Misperception

Brooks

Mond

Mitchison

et al. 2019

Perspect Psychol Sci

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“…Consistent with previous studies where women estimated their own body size or other women’s body size [e.g., Refs. (27, 47, 49)], in the current study, plots of estimated body size are linearly predicted by the participant’s own actual BMI, but with a slope of less than unity (see the top two rows of Figure 3 ). Lower actual BMI participants over-estimate body size, middle-range actual BMI participants’ estimates are the most accurate, and high actual BMI participants under-estimate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 48%

How Does Variation in the Body Composition of Both Stimuli and Participant Modulate Self-Estimates of Men’s Body Size?

et al. 2019

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When measured in units of body mass index (BMI), how much variation in men’s self-estimates of body size is caused by i) variation in participants’ body composition and ii) variation in the apparent muscle mass and muscle tone of the stimuli being judged? To address this, we generated nine sets of male CGI bodies representing low, mid, and high muscle mass rendered at low, mid, and high muscle tone, from 18.75 to 40 BMIhse units. BMIhse units in this study are estimates of BMI derived from calibration equations predicting BMI from waist and hip circumference, age, sex, height, and ethnicity in the Health Survey for England databases. Forty-five healthy adult men estimated their body size using a yes-no paradigm for each combination of muscle mass/tone. We also measured participants’ body composition with Harpenden callipers and their body concerns with psychometric questionnaires. We show that stimulus variation in apparent muscle mass/tone can introduce differences up to ∼2.5 BMIhse units in men’s self-estimates of body size. Moreover, men with the same actual BMI, but different body composition, showed up to ∼5-7 BMIhse unit differences in self-estimates of body size. In the face of such large errors, we advocate that such judgments in men should be made instead by simultaneously manipulating both the adiposity and the muscle mass of stimuli which are appropriately calibrated for body composition, so that the participant can match the body size and shape they believe themselves to have to the stimulus they see.

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“…Thus, head motions elicited some changes in perspective due to motion parallax. Within this VR environment, participants were also able to rotate the 3D image to view it at the 45-degree or canonical view, as this angle has demonstrated improved accuracy in discriminating among bodies of different sizes [13,23,26]. Figure 2 shows examples of the silhouette (Sil), 2D textured (Tex), and 3D VR visualizations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Piryankova et al [26] and Mölbert et al [3] generated morphed images that were ±5-20% BMI of the true image. Based on the concepts of contraction bias [13,37], participants would be biased toward selecting images in the middle of the presented range, this could thus bias responding accuracy (given that the real image was always the middle image). To mitigate this and to provide symmetry among the four test conditions, the images were confined within the range of 18-40 kg·m −2 as they were in the Pulvers' figure rating scale [5].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of a BMI-Guided Shape Morphing Technique and the Effects of an Individualized Figure Rating Scale on Self-Perception of Body Size

Hudson

Zhang

et al. 2020

EJIHPE

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The creation of personalized avatars that may be morphed to simulate realistic changes in body size is useful when studying self-perception of body size. One drawback is that these methods are resource intensive compared to rating scales that rely upon generalized drawings. Little is known about how body perception ratings compare across different methods, particularly across differing levels of personalized detail in visualizations. This knowledge is essential to inform future decisions about the appropriate tradeoff between personalized realism and resource availability. The current study aimed to determine the impact of varying degrees of personalized realism on self-perception of body size. We explored this topic in young adult women, using a generalized line drawing scale, as well as several types of personalized avatars, including 3D textured images presented in immersive virtual reality (VR). Body perception ratings using generalized line drawings were often higher than responses using individualized visualization methods. While the personalized details seemed to help with identification, there were few differences among the three conditions containing different amounts of individualized realism (e.g., photo-realistic texture). These results suggest that using scales based on personalized texture and limb dimensions are beneficial, although presentation in immersive VR may not be essential. 580 scale was validated with an urban, African-American population, but the authors concluded that their instrument should be perceived well by a diverse range of ethnicities.Going beyond cultural specificity, it has been hypothesized that an individualized figure rating scale (i.e., tailored to the individual's actual body dimensions and surface features) could provide an even more precise evaluation of how a person perceives their body shape [3,10]. In both clinical and research settings, the precision of perceptual body image evaluation becomes relevant in illnesses where the key symptom is a disturbance in body image perception-e.g., eating disorders [11]. The purpose of the current study was not to investigate body image disturbances in a clinical population but, rather, to determine if utilizing realistic, individualized avatars would improve the accuracy with which a person could identify their image. As established by Cash and Deagle [12] and echoed by many other researchers [10,[13][14][15], body image is a multi-component concept that incorporates numerous constructs. Of the two major domains of body image (perceptual and attitudinal) [12,13], the perceptual domain was of primary interest in the current study. Given that the interest is in the subject's ability to estimate their body size based on an image of themselves, research from Longo et al. [15] might argue that these depictive methods lie somewhere in between the perceptual and attitudinal domains of body image. Nonetheless, the primary research question of the current project was to study the participants' self-perception of changes in size of thei...

show abstract

Perceptual Not Attitudinal Factors Predict the Accuracy of Estimating Other Women’s Bodies in Both Women With Anorexia Nervosa and Controls

Cited by 13 publications

References 74 publications

Looking at the Figures: Visual Adaptation as a Mechanism for Body-Size and -Shape Misperception

Looking at the Figures: Visual Adaptation as a Mechanism for Body-Size and -Shape Misperception

How Does Variation in the Body Composition of Both Stimuli and Participant Modulate Self-Estimates of Men’s Body Size?

The Development of a BMI-Guided Shape Morphing Technique and the Effects of an Individualized Figure Rating Scale on Self-Perception of Body Size

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