Skin Deep: Debating Body Image: 234 (Issues)

Series was designed to cover groups of books generally understood as such see Wikipedia: Like many concepts in the book world, "series" is a somewhat fluid and contested notion. A good rule of thumb is that series have a conventional name and are intentional creations , on the part of the author or publisher. For now, avoid forcing the issue with mere "lists" of works possessing an arbitrary shared characteristic, such as relating to a particular place.

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Avoid series that cross authors, unless the authors were or became aware of the series identification eg. Also avoid publisher series, unless the publisher has a true monopoly over the "works" in question. So, the Dummies guides are a series of works. But the Loeb Classical Library is a series of editions, not of works. Home Groups Talk Zeitgeist. The 12 Days of LT scavenger hunt is going on. Can you solve the clues?

I Agree This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and if not signed in for advertising. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms. Common Knowledge Series Issues. Issues LibraryThing has 1 suggested work for this series. Series description Cambridge-based Independence Educational Publishers produced the first title in their new "Issues for the Nineties" series in Launched by former teacher Craig Donnellan to address a lack of available resources covering social issues for the 16 to 18 age group, topics in the "Issues for the Nineties" series gathered together information from a number of sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the contemporary issues affecting society and young people.

Later renamed "Issues", the series now contains over 60 titles.

How do series work? Helpers smithli , jefbra 1. In Middle English literature, a beautiful man should have a long, broad and strong face. A study that used Chinese, Malay and Indian judges said that Chinese men with orthognathism where the mouth is flat and in-line with the rest of the face were judged to be the most attractive and Chinese men with a protruding mandible where the jaw projects outward were judged to be the least attractive. Symmetrical faces and bodies may be signs of good inheritance to women of child-bearing age seeking to create healthy offspring.

Studies suggest women are less attracted to men with asymmetrical faces, [56] and symmetrical faces correlate with long term mental performance [57] and are an indication that a man has experienced "fewer genetic and environmental disturbances such as diseases, toxins, malnutrition or genetic mutations" while growing.

Studies have also suggested that women at peak fertility were more likely to fantasize about men with greater facial symmetry, [58] and other studies have found that male symmetry was the only factor that could significantly predict the likelihood of a woman experiencing orgasm during sex. Women with partners possessing greater symmetry reported significantly more copulatory female orgasms than were reported by women with partners possessing low symmetry, even with many potential confounding variables controlled.

It has been argued that masculine facial dimorphism in men and symmetry in faces are signals advertising genetic quality in potential mates. They are also more likely to be prone to infidelity. Double-blind studies found that women prefer the scent of men who are rated as facially attractive. Studies have explored the genetic basis behind such issues as facial symmetry and body scent and how they influence physical attraction.

In one study in which women wore men's T-shirts, researchers found that women were more attracted to the bodily scents in shirts of men who had a different type of gene section within the DNA called major histocompatibility complex MHC. Women judge the faces of men who are heterozygous at all three MHC loci to be more attractive than the faces of men who are homozygous at one or more of these loci.

Additionally, a second experiment with genotyped women raters, found these preferences were independent of the degree of MHC similarity between the men and the female rater. With MHC heterozygosity independently seen as a genetic advantage, the results suggest that facial attractiveness in men may be a measure of genetic quality. A OkCupid study on , of its male and female dating site users found that women are, except those during their early to mid-twenties, open to relationships with both somewhat older and somewhat younger men; they have a larger potential dating pool than men until age At age 20, women, in a "dramatic change", begin sending private messages to significantly older men.

At age 29 they become "even more open to older men". Male desirability to women peaks in the late 20s and does not fall below the average for all men until For the Romans especially, "beardlessness" and "smooth young bodies" were considered beautiful to both men and women. Today, men and women's attitudes towards male beauty has changed. For example, body hair on men may even be preferred see below. The study said that more feminine men tended to prefer relatively older men than themselves and more masculine men tended to prefer relatively younger men than themselves.

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The physique of a slim waist, broad shoulders and muscular chest are often found to be attractive to females. Other researchers found waist-to-chest ratio the largest determinant of male attractiveness, with body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio not as significant. Women focus primarily on the ratio waist to chest or more specifically waist to shoulder. This is analogous to the waist to hip ratio WHR that men prefer. Key body image for a man in the eyes of a woman would include big shoulders, chest, and upper back, and a slim waist area.

The research also found that when a college female's waist to hip ratio went up, their body image satisfaction decreased. Some research has shown that body weight may have a stronger effect than WHR when it comes to perceiving attractiveness of the opposite sex. It was found that waist to hip ratio played a smaller role in body preference than body weight in regards to both sexes.

Psychologists Viren Swami and Martin J. Tovee compared female preference for male attractiveness cross culturally, between Britain and Malaysia. They found that females placed more importance on WCR and therefore body shape in urban areas of Britain and Malaysia, while females in rural areas placed more importance on BMI therefore weight and body size. Females have been found to desire males that are normal weight and have the average WHR for a male. Females view these males as attractive and healthy. Males who had the average WHR but were overweight or underweight are not perceived as attractive to females.

This suggests that WHR is not a major factor in male attractiveness, but a combination of body weight and a typical male WHR seem to be the most attractive. Research has shown that men who have a higher waist to hip ratio and a higher salary are perceived as more attractive to women. A study found that an abdomen that protrudes was the "least attractive" trait for men. In Middle English literature, a beautiful man should have a flat abdomen.

Men's bodies portrayed in magazines marketed to men are more muscular than the men's bodies portrayed in magazines marketed to women. From this, some have concluded that men perceive a more muscular male body to be ideal, as distinct from a woman's ideal male, which is less muscular than what men perceive to be ideal. In a study of stated profile preferences on Match. In pre-modern Chinese literature, such as in Romance of the Western Chamber , a type of masculinity called "scholar masculinity" is depicted wherein the "ideal male lover" is "weak, vulnerable, feminine, and pedantic ".

In Middle English literature, a beautiful man should have thick, broad shoulders, a square and muscular chest, a muscular back, strong sides that taper to a small waist, large hands and arms and legs with huge muscles. A study, of 25, heterosexual men found that men who perceived themselves as having a large penis were more satisfied with their own appearance.

A study criticized previous studies based on the fact that they relied on images and used terms such as "small", "medium", and "large" when asking for female preference. It was found that women overestimated the actual size of the penises they have experimented with when asked in a follow-up survey. The study concluded that women on average preferred the 6. Penises with larger girth were preferred for one-time partners.

Females' sexual attraction towards males may be determined by the height of the man. Other studies have shown that heterosexual women often prefer men taller than they are rather than a man with above average height. While women usually desire men to be at least the same height as themselves or taller, several other factors also determine male attractiveness, and the male-taller norm is not universal.

One study by Stulp found that "women were most likely to choose a speed-dater 25 cm taller than themselves. Additionally, women seem more receptive to an erect posture than men, though both prefer it as an element within beauty. In romances in Middle English literature, all of the "ideal" male heroes are tall, and the vast majority of the "valiant" male heroes are tall too.

Studies based in the United States, New Zealand, and China have shown that women rate men with no trunk chest and abdominal hair as most attractive, and that attractiveness ratings decline as hairiness increases. In a study using Finnish women, women with hairy fathers were more likely to prefer hairy men, suggesting that preference for hairy men is the result of either genetics or imprinting.

Testosterone has been shown to darken skin color in laboratory experiments. Manual laborers who spent extended periods of time outside developed a darker skin tone due to exposure to the sun. As a consequence, an association between dark skin and the lower classes developed. Light skin became an aesthetic ideal because it symbolized wealth. Including assumptions about a person's race, socioeconomic class, intelligence, and physical attractiveness. A scientific review published in , identified from a vast body of empirical research that skin colour as well as skin tone tend to be preferred as they act as indicators of good health.

More specifically, these indicators are thought to suggest to potential mates that the beholder has strong or good genes capable of fighting off disease. According to one study Yee N. More recent research has suggested that redder and yellower skin tones, [] reflecting higher levels of oxygenated blood, [] carotenoid and to a lesser extent melanin pigment, and net dietary intakes of fruit and vegetables, [] appear healthier, and therefore more attractive. Research indicates that heterosexual men tend to be attracted to young [] and beautiful women [] with bodily symmetry.

Research has attempted to determine which facial features communicate attractiveness. Facial symmetry has been shown to be considered attractive in women, [] [] and men have been found to prefer full lips, [] high forehead, broad face, small chin, small nose, short and narrow jaw, high cheekbones, [56] [] clear and smooth skin, and wide-set eyes.

The explanation given is that because the ring tends to fade with age and medical problems, a prominent limbal ring gives an honest indicator of youth. In Persian literature, beautiful women are said to have noses like hazelnuts. In a cross-cultural study, more neotenized i. In a cross-cultural study, Marcinkowska et al. The higher the National Health Index of a country, the more were the feminized faces preferred over the masculinized faces.

Among the countries surveyed, Japan had the highest femininity preference and Nepal had the lowest femininity preference. Cunningham of the Department of Psychology at the University of Louisville found, using a panel of East Asian , Hispanic and White judges, that the Asian, Hispanic and White female faces found most attractive were those that had "neonate large eyes, greater distance between eyes, and small noses" [] and his study led him to conclude that "large eyes" were the most "effective" of the "neonate cues".

In computer face averaging tests, women with averaged faces have been shown to be considered more attractive. Commenting on the prevalence of whiteness in supposed beauty ideals in his book White Lies: Race and the Myth of Whiteness , Maurice Berger states that the schematic rendering in the idealized face of a study conducted with American subjects had "straight hair," "light skin," "almond-shaped eyes," "thin, arched eyebrows," "a long, thin nose, closely set and tiny nostrils" and "a large mouth and thin lips", [] though the author of the study stated that there was consistency between his results and those conducted on other races.

Scholar Liu Jieyu says in the article White Collar Beauties , "The criterion of beauty is both arbitrary and gendered. The implicit consensus is that women who have fair skin and a slim figure with symmetrical facial features are pretty. One psychologist speculated there were two opposing principles of female beauty: So on average, symmetrical features are one ideal, while unusual, stand-out features are another. However, that particular University of Toronto study looked only at white women.

A study that used Chinese, Malay and Indian judges said that Chinese women with orthognathism where the mouth is flat and in-line with the rest of the face were judged to be the most attractive and Chinese women with a protruding mandible where the jaw projects outward were judged to be the least attractive. A study, by Wilkins, Chan and Kaiser found correlations between perceived femininity and attractiveness, that is, women's faces which were seen as more feminine were judged by both men and women to be more attractive.

A component of the female beauty ideal in Persian literature is for women to have faces like a full moon. In Arabian society in the Middle Ages, a component of the female beauty ideal was for women to have round faces which were like a "full moon". In Japan, during the Edo period , a component of the female beauty ideal was for women to have long and narrow faces which were shaped like ovals. In Jewish Rabbinic literature , the rabbis considered full lips to be the ideal type of lips for women.

Body Confidence - Issues - Health and Wellbeing - Independence Educational Publishers

Historically, in Chinese and Japanese literature, the feminine ideal was said to include small lips. Classical Persian literature, paintings, and miniatures portrayed traits such as long black curly hair, a small mouth, long arched eyebrows, large almond shaped eyes, a small nose, and beauty spots as being beautiful for women. A study where photographs of several women were manipulated so that their faces would be shown with either the natural eye color of the model or with the other color showed that, on average, brown-eyed men have no preference regarding eye color, but blue-eyed men prefer women of the same eye color.

Through the East Asian blepharoplasty cosmetic surgery procedure, Asian women can permanently alter the structure of their eyelid. Some people have argued that this alteration is done to resemble the structure of a Western eyelid [] while other people have argued that this is generally done solely to emulate the appearance of naturally occurring Asian double eyelids.

A study that investigated whether or not an eyelid crease makes Chinese-descent women more attractive using photo-manipulated photographs of young Chinese-descent women's eyes found that the "medium upper eyelid crease" was considered most attractive by all three groups of both sexes: Similarly, all three groups of both genders found the absence of an eye crease to be least attractive on Chinese women.

In the late sixteenth century, Japanese people considered epicanthic folds to be beautiful. In Arabian society in the Middle Ages, a component of the female beauty ideal was for women to have dark black eyes which are large and long and in the shape of almonds. Furthermore, the eyes should be lustrous, and they should have long eyelashes. A source written in , said that a component of the Persian female beauty ideal was for women to have large eyes which are black in color.

In Chinese, the phrase "lucent irises, lustrous teeth" Chinese: In Japan, during the Edo period , one piece of evidence, the appearance of the "formal wife" of Tokugawa Iesada as determined by " bone anthropologist " Suzuki Hisashi, indicates that large eyes were considered attractive for women, but, another piece of evidence, the Japanese text "Customs, Manners, and Fashions of the Capital" Japanese: Cross-cultural data shows that the reproductive success of women is tied to their youth and physical attractiveness [] such as the pre-industrial Sami where the most reproductively successful women were 15 years younger than their man.

As men age, they tend to seek a mate who is ever younger. After age 26, men have a larger potential dating pool than women on the site; and by age 48, their pool is almost twice as large. The median year-old male user searches for women aged 22 to 35, while the median year-old male searches for women 27 to The age skew is even greater with messages to other users; the median year-old male messages teenage girls as often as women his own age, while mostly ignoring women a few years older than him.

That's why most of the models you see in magazines are teenagers". Pheromones detected by female hormone markers reflects female fertility and the reproductive value mean. However, the study sets up a framework where "taboos against sex with young girls" are purposely diminished, and biased their sample by removing any participant over the age of 30, with a mean participant age of Signals of fertility in women are often also seen as signals of youth.

The evolutionary perspective proposes the idea that when it comes to sexual reproduction, the minimal parental investment required by men gives them the ability and want to simply reproduce 'as much as possible.

This may explain why combating age declines in attractiveness occurs from a younger age in women than in men. For example, the removal of one's body hair is considered a very feminine thing to do. Shaving reverts one's appearance to a more youthful stage [] and although this may not be an honest signal, men will interpret this as a reflection of increased fertile value.

Research supports this, showing hairlessness to considered sexually attractive by men. Research has shown that most heterosexual men enjoy the sight of female breasts , [] with a preference for large, firm breasts. A study by Groyecka et al. These findings are coherent with previous research that link breast attractiveness with female youthfulness. Unlike breast size, breast ptosis seems to be a universal marker of female breast attractiveness.

A study showed that men prefer symmetrical breasts. Women who have more symmetrical breasts tend to have more children. Historical literature often includes specific features of individuals or a gender that are considered desirable. These have often become a matter of convention, and should be interpreted with caution. In Arabian society in the Middle Ages, a component of the female beauty ideal was for women to have small breasts. Biological anthropologist Helen E. Fisher of the Center for Human Evolution Studies in the Department of Anthropology of Rutgers University said that, "perhaps, the fleshy, rounded buttocks Caro , professor in the Center for Population Biology and the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, at University of California, Davis , rejected that as being a necessary conclusion, stating that female fatty deposits on the hips improve "individual fitness of the female", regardless of sexual selection.

In a study, black men were more likely than white men to use the words "big" or "large" to describe their conception of an attractive woman's posterior. Availability of food influences which female body size is attractive which may have evolutionary reasons. Societies with food scarcities prefer larger female body size than societies that have plenty of food. In Western society males who are hungry prefer a larger female body size than they do when not hungry.

BMI has been criticised for conflating fat and muscle, and more recent studies have concentrated on body composition. Among Australian university students, the most attractive body composition for women In the United States, women overestimate men's preferences for thinness in a mate. In one study, American women were asked to choose what their ideal build was and what they thought the build most attractive to men was.

Women chose slimmer than average figures for both choices. When American men were independently asked to choose the female build most attractive to them, the men chose figures of average build. This indicates that women may be misled as to how thin men prefer women to be. East Asians have historically preferred women whose bodies had small features. For example, during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, women in Chinese harems wanted to have a thin body in order to be attractive for the Chinese emperor. Later, during the Tang Dynasty , a less thin body type was seen as most attractive for Chinese women.

In the Victorian era , women who adhered to Victorian ideals were expected to limit their food consumption to attain the ideal slim figure. A WHR of 0. Women within the 0. Both men and women judge women with smaller waist-to-hip ratios more attractive. In Chinese, the phrase "willow waist" Chinese: In the Victorian era , a small waist was considered the main trait of a beautiful woman.

Most men tend to be taller than their female partners. Having said this, height is a more important factor for a woman when choosing a man than it is for a man choosing a woman. In Middle English literature, 'tallness' is a characteristic of ideally beautiful women. A study by Swami et al. Marco Bertamini criticized the Swami et al. Using this data, he similarly found that men usually have slightly proportionately longer legs than women or that differences in leg length proportion may not exist between men and women.

These findings made him rule out the possibility that a preference for women with proportionately longer legs than men is due proportionately longer legs being a secondary sex characteristic of women. According to some studies, most men prefer women with small feet, [] [] such as in ancient China where foot binding was practiced. In Jewish Rabbinic literature , the rabbis considered small feet to be the ideal type of feet for women.

Men have been found to prefer long-haired women. Hair therefore indicates health and nutrition during the last 2—3 years. Lustrous hair is also often a cross-cultural preference. A component of the female beauty ideal in Persian literature is for women to have black hair, [] which was also preferred in Arabian society in the Middle Ages.

The way an individual moves can indicate health and even age and influence attractiveness. Similarly, the perceived attractiveness of males doubled when they moved with a swagger in their shoulders. A preference for lighter-skinned women has been documented among certain populations.

For analysis, SCR was defined as the peak amplitude within five seconds after onset of the knife threat and was calculated by identifying the maximum conductance value and then subtracting the preceding minimum value within the time frame. The onset of the knife threat was recorded in the data files by the experimenter pressing a key when the knife entered the image. The experiment utilised a within participants design. Participants stood facing the mannequin wearing the HMDs with their head tilted forwards as if looking down at their own body. An image of the mannequin's body viewed from first person perspective was presented through the HMDs therefore appearing in place of their real body see Figure 1.

For each trial the experimenter stroked both the mannequin and the actual torso for 60 seconds. Stroking was divided equally between the centre, left, and right side of the torso. Participant view through the head mounted display of the male mannequin in the small b and large c body conditions. Both subjects in the figure have given written informed consent, as outlined in the PLOS consent form, to publication of their photograph. For synchronous trials the experimenter stroked the mannequin torso and the corresponding position on the participant's torso in complete temporal synchrony.

The stroking pattern was kept irregular to avoid predictability effects. There were two body size conditions: Both body size conditions were completed with synchronous and asynchronous stroking making a total of four conditions: Out of a total of 16 trials, the first 12 three per condition measured skin conductance response to a knife threat as an objective measure of the illusion. Following 60 s of stroking the experimenter attacked the mannequin with a knife whilst measuring SCR.

The knife approached the mannequin torso from the left and was drawn across the body from left to right being in view for approximately two seconds and in contact with the mannequin for approximately one second. These trials were conducted in a random order with a minimum of one two-minute break every four trials in which participants removed the HMDs. The questionnaire consisted of seven statements, three aimed at the strength of the illusion and two control questions based on [19] see Figure 2 , with an additional two questions asking directly about perceived body size see below.

All questionnaire items were presented to the participant in a random order via the HMDs with numeric responses given verbally to the experimenter. Breaks of at least two minutes in which the participant removed the HMDs were given between each trial. The duration of the entire experiment was approximately 50 minutes. Similarly, subjective responses were only taken once per condition to prevent participants from guessing the aim of the experiment and thus reducing the possibility of demand characteristics. This approach has been used by previous similar studies e.

Median illusion and control questionnaire scores for both female a and male b participants. Greater agreement was found following synchronous open bars compared to asynchronous filled bars stroking for the illusion but not control questions. Error bars show interquartile range.

Greater amplitudes were found following synchronous stroking. Error bars show standard errors. Experiment two aimed to investigate affective responses to illusory ownership over both LB and SB body sizes using a new cohort of participants. To control for possible confounding variables that may effect body satisfaction, additional measures and screening were completed for this sample see table 1 , table S2 , and below.

Social economic status was measured with years of education as an index; all participants had a minimum of 12 years education i. Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg self esteem scale [31]. A global score of 2. The experimental set-up was identical to that used for experiment one without SCR. An additional task, perceptual judgments of hip size, was measured using a cm ruler. The BISS is a six-item scale designed to measure body satisfaction at a particular instance in time.

The BISS correlates with other body satisfaction measures and demonstrates internal consistency and construct validity [34]. Higher BISS scores represent higher body satisfaction. The FRS consists of nine numbered silhouetted bodies ranging from emaciated to obese. Participants select images that represent both their ideal and current body size. The FRS has good test-retest reliability [35]. The questionnaire consists of items rated on a seven-point Likert scale, except six items asking about frequency of behaviour.

The questionnaire can be divided into four subscales dietary restraint, eating concern, weight concern, and shape concern , or a single global measure. Because the global score was used to define clinical cut-off [33] it was this score that was used for all subsequent analysis. Additional measures were also taken to examine individual differences; details can be found in methods S1.

Cara Acred

The full body illusion over wider LB and slimmer SB body types was performed as in experiment one. However, to prevent the experiment being too long and to limit the number of repetitions of the subjective questionnaires, only synchronous conditions were used. Due to the small size manipulations in the illusion, the cognitive knowledge of being in an experiment, as well as other individual characteristics that may influence emotion, affective responses were hypothesized to be much smaller than any perceptual changes. Therefore, when measuring body satisfaction a longer duration of stroking was given s , compared to when measuring perceptual responses, for the participants to be fully immersed in the illusion.

Thus allowing more time not only for the perceptual recalibration, but also for the subsequent hypothesized affective response. In addition, the longer duration also provided a longer period between repetition of the BISS and FRS, reducing the likelihood of participants simply repeating remembered responses. The questions were delivered through the HMDs in a random order with the responses given verbally.

To protect participant confidentiality the experimenter could not see the questions and reverse scoring was implemented. Next, participants were asked to make perceptual judgments of their own hip size, for which the HMD screens were blank so that the participants had no vision of either their own body or that of the mannequin. Participants were required to hold a cm ruler using the index finger and thumb of both hands with their arms outstretched in front of them. Participants then adjusted the distance between their index fingers to correspond with the perceived actual distance between their own hips.

Whilst making the judgments participants could only move their right hand, with their left hand held in position by the experimenter preventing them from aligning their hands with sides of their body. For each trial, three separate judgments were made before and after each period of 60 s stroking, bringing their hands to their sides between each judgment. This was repeated three times to gain sufficient power for reliable statistical analysis. It was made clear to participants that these judgments were to reflect perceived width of their own body and not that of the mannequin.

Finally, after an additional 60 s of stroking, participants answered a modified version of the illusion questionnaire see table S1. Each participant completed the entire procedure s stroking with pre and post-illusion BISS and FRS responses, three trials of 60 s stroking each with three pre and three post illusion hip size judgments and 60 s of stroking followed by the ownership questionnaire for both LB and SB conditions separated by minute break. The order of conditions was counterbalanced across participants. The duration of the entire experiment was approximately 90 minutes including the minute break in between body size conditions.

Experiment one established equally strong illusions of ownership with the large and small mannequins for both male and female participants. For the questionnaire data an illusion score was calculated by averaging across all three illusion questions. Similarly, a control score was calculated by averaging across the two control questions. The data were ordinal and not normally distributed Shapiro-Wilk test so were analysed using non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank tests, for which effect size is indicated by the probability of superiority for dependent measures PS dep.

Wilcoxon signed rank tests revealed a significant effect of synchrony in the LB condition for both sexes Males: The same was true of the SB condition Males: A further two questions were included in the questionnaire asking directly about the perceptual effects of the illusion: Effect size is indicated by partial eta squared np 2. Although this may reflect a slight heightened response to seeing a knife for females, lack of a significant interaction suggests that this was not modulated by the illusion.

Therefore, experiment one demonstrates equivalent illusion strength between males and females as well as for both body size conditions. These results mean that the paradigm is suitable to examine possible links to emotional experience experiment two as the conditions are matched in terms of vividness of the illusion. After confirming the suitability of the paradigm, the second experiment then aimed to establish affective responses with pre and post-illusion body satisfaction measures.

For additional results see table S1 and results S1. The effects on perceived body size were measured using perceptual hip size judgments that were calculated as the distance between the inner edge of left and right index fingers on the ruler. This was then converted into a percentage of actual hip size for each participant in each condition with actual hip distance taken as the distance between the outer edges of the body at the hipbones. The data were normally distributed Shapiro-Wilk test , but violated homogeneity assumptions, which was not rectified by transformation.

Thus, illusory ownership of a slimmer body caused decreases in perceived actual body width. Sex differences were analysed using a change in hip judgment score described below. Medians of pre and post-illusion hip judgments for the large a and small b body conditions Error bars show interquartile range. Medians of pre and post-illusion body satisfaction BISS scores for the large c and small b body conditions.

Scores of male participants are depicted by open triangles and females by filled circles. The emotional effects of the illusion were calculated by comparing pre and post-illusion body satisfaction scores. These were calculated for each participant in each condition by taking a mean of the six BISS responses after reverse scoring.

As the data were not normally distributed Shapiro-Wilk test and ordinal Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used. Importantly, these results provide the first experimental evidence for a direct link between affective and perceptual body representations using multisensory illusions, demonstrating increases in body satisfaction following illusory ownership over a slimmer body. A change in BISS score was calculated by subtracting pre from post-illusion scores such that positive and negative values represented increases and decreases in body satisfaction respectively and did not represent an absolute change.

For additional results see table S2 and results S2. Further supplementary analysis was conducted to investigate the possible effects of condition order results S3 and participant height results S4 on each of the experimental measures. The current study was the first to experimentally manipulate perceived body size using multisensory illusions demonstrating a direct link between perceptual and affective body representations. After determining that neither sex of the participant nor illusory body size affected illusion strength it was shown that ownership over a slimmer body significantly decreases perceived body width and increases body satisfaction.

Linking the body to emotional experience is not a new concept. For example, experiments investigating embodied cognition demonstrate that bodily posture and action not only express current emotional state but also facilitate it [37]. Our results extend these ideas, demonstrating that perception of our own body size can have a direct influence on emotional experience.

Neural networks associated with body perception including posterior parietal [38] and premotor areas [39] , have previously been investigated independently from networks involved with emotional experience that incorporate the insula and the anterior cingulate cortex [40].