Dr Devendra Singh At University of Texas Buss

Dr. Devendra Singh • At University of Texas – Buss, Langlois, etc. • Psychologist – Food and alcohol addiction • Body image and dieting-related research led into his early waist-to-hip ratio studies

Body Image as Psychological Construct • Multidimensional self-attitudes toward one’s body, particularly its appearance • Self-perceptions, cognitions, affect, and behaviours • Has moderate relationship with self-esteem and psychosocial adjustment issues – e. g. , eating disturbances, depression, social anxiety, sexual frustration

Psychology Today (1972 & 1985) • Popular magazine – Mail-in survey – Stratified random sample • Found that women possess more negative bodyimage attitudes than men – Shape and weight – Fears of becoming fat – Occur across lifespan, but especially prevalent in adolescence

Cash & Henry (1995) • • 803 women 18 -70 years 19 cities in 5 U. S. A. geographic regions Representative cross-section of age, race, income, education • Door-to-door; left questionnaire booklet to be collected next day; monetary compensation

Subscales of the MB SRQ • Appearance Evaluation (AE) – 7 items to assess global evaluation of appearance • Body Areas Satisfaction Scale (BASS) – Height, weight, hair, face, upper-, mid-, and lower-torso • Overweight Preoccupation (OP) – Weight vigilance, fat anxiety, current dieting, eating restraint

Results • Sizable minority of women report an overall negative body image • 36% report wholesale body dissatisfaction on BASS • 48% report unfavourable view of their body on AE • 49% report concerns about being overweight

BASS Breakdown Physical Area Face Height Hair Upper-torso Muscle tone Weight Lower-torso Mid-torso % Dissatisfied 11. 7 13. 4 16. 3 25. 1 36. 9 46. 0 47. 4 51. 0 % Dissatisfied/Neutral 30. 4 30. 2 28. 0 47. 3 63. 9 63. 3 64. 2 69. 8

Effect of Age and Race • Age-cohort differences significant on AE scale, but not BASS or OP • 18 -24 years have more favourable body image than the four older groups (25 -34, 3544, 45 -54, 55 -70) • Black women had more favourable body image than Anglo and Hispanic women

Disturbing Trend • Nearly 50% of the women surveyed reported globally negative evaluations of looks and concerns about becoming overweight • Over 33% expressed body-image discontent • Much worse than the 1985 survey – 30% --> 48% unfavourable MB SRQ score

Cash, Ancis, & Strachan (1997) • Learning? • Cultural forces influence body image • Jackson (1992) – Across lifespan, women have poorer body image than men • Gender attitudes • Ideologies

Cultural Norms • Argued that cultural norms and expectations encourage women & girls to focus attention on their physical appearance – Femininity ideals • Role of values, attitudes, gender identities? • Do nontraditional gender attitudes lead to more positive body image?

“Types” • Traditional (T) • Feminist identity (F) • Hypotheses – T associated with greater body-image investment – T has more negative body-image evaluations and affect

Study • 122 female undergraduate students • Questionnaire • Gender Attitude Inventory (GAI) – Gender stereotypes – Sexual relationships – Societal organizations • Male-Female Relations Questionnaire (MFRQ) – Social interaction with men – Male preference • Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS) – Five stages of feminist development • Multidimensional Body. Self Relations Questionnaire (MB SRQ)

Results • Did not support idea that development of feminist identity or endorsement of egalitarian social identity --> more positive body image • Also, traditional identity is not responsible for controlling body image issues

Waist-to-Hip Ratio • Not developed by Singh • Measure going back into early-mid 20 th century for medical purposes • Reflects distribution of fat between upper and lower body and relative amount of intra- vs. extraabdominal fat • Measure waist at narrowest point b/t ribs and iliac crest and hip at greatest protrusion of buttocks circumferences

Cutting to the Chase • Basically, Singh’s early work supported a: • Male preference for women with WHRs around 0. 7 • Female recognition of male preference

WHR at the Oscars (a few years back) 0. 74 0. 70 0. 68 0. 71

Amazon overcoming a Greek (c. 350 BC)

Venus (Capitoline type) (Rome copy of Greek, c. 360 BC) Aphrodite bathing (Roman, c. 150 AD)

The Three Graces (by Antonio Canova, 1815 -17)

Female/Male Differences • Differences in post-puberty fat deposition patterns • Females: add fat to gluteofemoral region • Males: lose fat from gluteofemoral region and add to central abdomen and upper body (shoulders, neck)

WHR Issues • • Age Health Reproductive fitness, fecundity All factor into potential adaptation for mate selection

Sex Hormonal Role • Testosterone: stimulates fat deposits to abdomen and inhibits deposits to gluteofemoral regions • Estrogens: inhibit fat deposits in abdomen and maximally stimulate deposits to gluteofemoral region (and other regions, too)

Android and Gynoid • Body shapes • Healthy body weight range • Highly different from children and elderly • Altering sex hormones alters fat distributions and body shape Image modified from Pioneer Plaques http: //www. nd. edu/~jmontgom/ti/Graphic. Archive/ Scans/Original%20 Files/Pictograph/Pioneer. Plaque. jpg

Males: High Testosterone Charles Atlas Leo Robert Dave Draper

And… Really High Testosterone Lee Haney Dorian Yates El Shahat Mabrouk Ronnie Coleman

Female: Low Estrogens, High Testosterone (Ms. Olympia 2003)

Children • Pre-sex hormone • Fat deposition fairly similar between sexes • Can be difficult to distinguish by fat deposit form • Clear difference between pre- and postpuberty shapes http: //www. tootsiesdancewear. com/members/ 547048/uploaded/132 C_4. jpg

Weight • Anorexia to obesity: both interfere with body shape judgments http: //www. humanillnesses. com/original/ images/hdc_0001_0002_0_img 0094. jpg

Elderly • Circulating sex hormones drop • Females add fat deposits to abdomen • Male muscle mass drops, reducing android shape; fat depositions generally follow earlier pattern • Loss in sex differentiation based on fat deposition

Health • Variety of heritable issues linked to fat deposition patterns • Polycystic ovarian syndrome, advanced cirrhosis, hypogonadism, Klinefelter syndrome, etc. • Obesity itself has numerous complications: cardiac issues, diabetes, stroke, hypertension, etc.

Reproductive Status • Obviously, linked to issues of age • Hormone levels (lutenizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, sex steroids) • Stored energy levels; pregnancy and childrearing is going to be expensive • Concealed ovulation and current fecundity status

WHR Speculation: Pregnant or Plump? (Remember this? )

Pregnancy • Obvious WHR effect • Relatively early indicator of pregnancy http: //www. virtualmedicalcentre. com/uploads/VMC/ Disease. Images/2487_pregnancy_ext_440. jpg

Singh (1993) • Manipulated WHR to change perceived attractiveness • If WHR preference is adaptation, should see fairly consistent outcomes • Attractiveness, healthiness, reproductive capacity

Earlier Work on Idealized Figure • Women guess males prefer thin female • Males actually prefer not very thin • Studies utilized body size (thin vs. fat), not shape (i. e. , fat distribution) • Singh’s work utilized both size and shape

Stimuli • Underweight, normal, overweight • 0. 7 to 1. 0 WHRs Stimuli

Results: Young Subjects

Results • Generally, similar male and female patterns in rankings • Used both WHR and body weight to rank • Within weight category, subjects systematically used WHR to infer all attributes • Overall, higher ratings for normal weight than under- or overweight figures, and for 0. 7 WHR across weight categories

Results: Older Subjects (30 -86)

Results • Again, general agreement between sexes • Unlike younger men, older men didn’t rank U 7 as attractive, healthy, or reproductive

Youthfulness • Lack of association between youthfulness and reproductive capacity • In particular, underweights ranked high for youthfulness, but low for reproductive capacity

To Young to Reproduce? • Age estimates – Underweights: 17 -19 – Normals: 23 -26 – Overweights: 31 -33 • Not because underweights are being judged pre-pubescent • Body weight, more than WHR, used for age estimates

Honest Signals • Signals = traits • Honest if signal correlates with/reliably predicts something useful to receiver of signal • Difficult to fake • Too much dishonest signaling will disrupt the system

WHR as Signal • Singh’s work shows males and females attend to WHR • Utilized for a number of determinations • Health, attractiveness, and particular WHRs closely linked • Hamilton & Zuk (1982): sexual selection for signals of good health

Uniquely Human • Gluteofemoral fat deposits • No sexual dimorphism for fat distribution • Development no more than 5 -6 mya, likely much more recently http: //www. mccullagh. org/db 9/10 d 17/vervet-monkey. jpg http: //blog. theavclub. tv/wpcontent/uploads/2007/05/chimpanzee. jpg http: //s. buzzfed. com/static/imagebuzz/terminal 01/2009/4/ 20/11/hairless-chimpanzee-10348 -1240240236 -2. jpg

Bipedalism and Brain Size • Bipedal Australopithecines 4. 2 -3. 9 mya • Brain size increases ~2. 7 mya • Newborn ape’s brain about 200 cc, roughly half that of an adult’s • Newborn human’s brain about 450 cc, roughly a third the size of an adult’s • Brain of 675 cc would make human head too large to birth

Ancestral Growth Patterns • Ancestors left apelike growth when adult brain passed about 770 cc – Beyond this, brain would have to more than double from birth – Beginning of helplessness in infants • H. habilis, 800 cc brain; H. erectus, 900 cc brain • Late H. erectus’ (post 800 k) tooth growth pattern like modern humans (and Neanderthals) • Puts birthing and childrearing issues becoming significant somewhere around 1. 7 -1. 0 mya

Fat Stores • Storage fat – Depends on nutritional status; subcutaneous deposits – 8 -10% total body weight, both males and females • Essential fat – Includes gender-specific fat, bone marrow, deep fat stores, CNS – 14% of female total body weight; only 2 -4% in males – Not utilized for short-term food shortage – “Reproductive fat” for females – Gluteofemoral fat stores primarily used in late pregnancy and lactation

Reproductive Capability • Gluteofemoral fat stores • Energy for gestation and lactation • Proper infant brain development requires lipids and lactose • Differential reproductive success

WHR • Good indicator of general health as well as reproductive capacity • Selection favoured males who picked females with stored “reproductive” calories, not general obesity – Studies show difficulties in conception with higher WHRs Venus of Dolni Vestonice (29, 000 -25, 000 BCE) en. wikipedia. org/wiki/File: Venus_of _Dolni_Vestonice. png

Feedback • Men favoured gynoid fat distribution • These women’s reproductive success increased the genes for the gynoid form in the gene pool • Sexy daughters and sons with fathers’ preference • Reasonable argument for WHR as honest signal