Women gaze behaviour in assessing female bodies: the effects of clothing, body size, own body composition and body satisfaction

Abstract

Often with minimally clothed figures depicting extreme body sizes, previous studies have shown women tend to gaze at evolutionary determinants of attractiveness when viewing female bodies, possibly for self-evaluation purposes, and their gaze distribution is modulated by own body dissatisfaction level. To explore to what extent women's body-viewing gaze behaviour is affected by clothing type, dress size, subjective measurements of regional body satisfaction and objective measurements of own body composition (e.g., chest size, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio), in this self-paced body attractiveness and body size judgement experiment, we compared healthy, young women's gaze distributions when viewing female bodies in tight and loose clothing of different dress sizes. In contrast to tight clothing, loose clothing biased gaze away from the waist-hip to the leg region, and subsequently led to enhanced body attractiveness ratings and body size underestimation for larger female bodies, indicating the important role of clothing in mediating women's body perception. When viewing preferred female bodies, women's higher satisfaction of a specific body region was associated with an increased gaze towards neighbouring body areas, implying satisfaction might reduce the need for comparison of confident body parts; furthermore undesirable body composition measurements were correlated with a gaze avoidance process if the construct was less changeable (i.e. chest size) but a gaze comparison process if the region was more changeable (i.e. body mass index, dress size). Clearly, own body satisfaction and body composition measurements had an evident impact on women's body-viewing gaze allocation, possibly through different cognitive processes.3

Effect of model race and viewing perspective on body attractiveness and body size assessment in young Caucasian women: an eye-tracking study

“…Their gaze distributions in body viewing were then correlated with their behavioural ratings, their own body composition measurements (BMI, WHR and chest size) and regional body satisfaction ratings. Guided by previous findings, we hypothesised that (1) participants would attend to waist–hip and chest regions to assess body attractiveness and body size regardless of model race (Cundall & Guo, 2017); (2) partipcants would show rating preference for Caucasian models due to in-group favouritism (Zebrowitz et al, 2007); (3) body-viewing gaze allocation at a given body feature would vary across viewpoints, similar to those reported in face-viewing gaze behaviour (Guo & Shaw, 2015); (4) participants’ own body composition, regional body dissatisfaction and their tendency for social and body comparisons (measured via PACS) would increase their gaze allocation to the concerned body regions (Cundall & Guo, 2017). …”

“…For instance, slender figures with low WHR and large breasts are often rated as more attractive (Singh & Young, 1995). Consequently, the waist–hip and chest regions tend to transmit diagnostic cues for body attractiveness and size judgements, and attract more frequent visual inspection than other local body features from young female viewers in the tasks of free viewing, body attractiveness and body size judgements (Cornelissen, Hancock, Kiviniemi, George, & Tovée, 2009; Hall, Hogue, & Guo, 2011, 2014; Cundall & Guo, 2017). …”

“…Interestingly, when viewing other female bodies with high attractiveness rating and preferred body size, women’s gaze allocation is modulated by their own body satisfaction and body composition (Cundall & Guo, 2017). It has been reported that women with low own body satisfaction scores tended to engage more in body comparison with the others (measured via Physical Appearance Comparison Scale, PACS) to evaluate their own body appearance, and this internal-driven comparison process could be manifested in their body-viewing gaze allocation (Cundall & Guo, 2017).…”

“…It has been reported that women with low own body satisfaction scores tended to engage more in body comparison with the others (measured via Physical Appearance Comparison Scale, PACS) to evaluate their own body appearance, and this internal-driven comparison process could be manifested in their body-viewing gaze allocation (Cundall & Guo, 2017). They often looked less at the body regions rated high in own-body satisfaction, but looked more at those regions rated low in own-body satisfaction, implying satisfaction might reduce the need for comparison of those body parts which they felt confident about (Jansen, Nederkoorn, & Mulkens, 2005; Cundall & Guo, 2017). Taken together, this individualised gaze comparison process and stereotypical pattern of gaze concentration at the waist–hip and chest regions indicate that body-viewing gaze behaviour in young women might be driven by the need for social comparison to establish or improve one’s own attractiveness (Hahn & Perrett, 2014), as suggested by the mate selection theory which postulates women judge their own attractiveness relative to other women to assess their own likelihood for successful mate selection or to monitor potential attractive competitors posing a greater threat to partner sexual fidelity (Pawlowski & Dunbar, 1999; Hughes, Harrison, & Gallup, 2004; O’Connor & Feinberg, 2012).…”

“…The typical design in previous research is to examine women’s body perception in viewing of female body images of the same racial group (e.g. Hall et al, 2011, 2014; Cundall & Guo, 2017). However, the idealised female body shape and WHR alter across cultures and are subject to societal influence.…”