تفاوت های سطوح نارضایتی از بدن و تعصبات جنسیتی در توجه نسبت به بدن ایده آل

Attentional bias toward idealized bodies (men: muscular; women: thin) may cause upward comparisons and increase body dissatisfaction (BD). We investigated attentional biases of 39 men and 41 women with high and low BD toward muscular male bodies and thin female bodies. An eye-tracker measured gaze durations and fixation frequencies while exposing participants to images of thin, normal, muscular, and fat bodies of the same gender. Results revealed longer and more frequent attention toward muscular bodies in high BD men, and toward thin bodies in high BD women. High BD men and women also rated muscular and thin bodies as more attractive than those with low BD. Although men attended to muscular and women attended to thin bodies, both showed an attentional bias toward body types they rated as more attractive. These findings could provide indirect evidence in explaining the relationship between BD and the social comparison theory with attentional bias.

One of the main factors in increasing such BD is mass media (Thompson et al., 1999). According to the sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978), individuals who perceive themselves, and who are being perceived by others, are influenced by cultural values. Culture determines the ideal standards of beauty and promotes increasing pressure to embody the ideal image found in media. Mass media thus influences body image dissatisfaction (Thompson et al., 1999). Another model, the social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954), indicates that people compare themselves to others on a variety of dimensions in order to self-evaluate. When the comparison target is inferior to oneself, this causes a downward comparison, which then leads to individuals giving themselves positive self-evaluations. In contrast, when the comparison target is superior to oneself, an upward comparison occurs and individuals give themselves a negative self-evaluation. According to Festinger (1954), individuals who are uncertain of themselves are more likely to make this type of upward comparison with others. In line with this proposal, studies have found that the psychological states, such as depressive moods or low self-esteem, influence people to make more frequent comparisons (e.g., Campbell, 1990, Gibbons and Buunk, 1999 and Wood et al., 1994).