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Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image

An increasing number of studies are evidencing relationships between the drive for muscularity and potentially harmful behavioral strategies, such as unhealthy dieting and steroid use amongst men in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) populations. As such Western appearance s...

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Autores principales: Thornborrow, Tracey, Onwuegbusi, Tochukwu, Mohamed, Sophie, Boothroyd, Lynda G., Tovée, Martin J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7145896/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32308635
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00495
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author Thornborrow, Tracey
Onwuegbusi, Tochukwu
Mohamed, Sophie
Boothroyd, Lynda G.
Tovée, Martin J.
author_facet Thornborrow, Tracey
Onwuegbusi, Tochukwu
Mohamed, Sophie
Boothroyd, Lynda G.
Tovée, Martin J.
author_sort Thornborrow, Tracey
collection PubMed
description An increasing number of studies are evidencing relationships between the drive for muscularity and potentially harmful behavioral strategies, such as unhealthy dieting and steroid use amongst men in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) populations. As such Western appearance standards proliferate around the world via the media, men who live in other cultural contexts are also at risk of potentially negative effects from aspiring to the “muscular ideal.” However, few studies have explored these relationships in non-WEIRD populations. We investigated men’s body ideals and body image in two non-WEIRD, non-White populations, Uganda (Africa) and Nicaragua (Central America), and compared them with an ethnically diverse sample of men in the United Kingdom. We also examined whether socio-cultural factors including media and ethnicity, predicted the drive for muscularity and body change behaviors among our participants. Results showed that Ugandan men had the least desire for muscularity relative to men in the United Kingdom. Supporting the Tripartite model we found that media and peer influences significantly predicted the drive for muscularity, particularly among men from White British and Nicaraguan Miskitu ethnic groups. By contrast, Creole / Garifuna and Mestizo men from Nicaragua were more likely to want to increase muscularity relative to Black African men from Uganda. Overall, our findings support previous research in demonstrating that there are cultural differences in the kind of body men desire, and that men from WEIRD and non-WEIRD populations may experience similar pressures to aspire to and attain a muscular body type.
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spelling pubmed-71458962020-04-18 Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image Thornborrow, Tracey Onwuegbusi, Tochukwu Mohamed, Sophie Boothroyd, Lynda G. Tovée, Martin J. Front Psychol Psychology An increasing number of studies are evidencing relationships between the drive for muscularity and potentially harmful behavioral strategies, such as unhealthy dieting and steroid use amongst men in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) populations. As such Western appearance standards proliferate around the world via the media, men who live in other cultural contexts are also at risk of potentially negative effects from aspiring to the “muscular ideal.” However, few studies have explored these relationships in non-WEIRD populations. We investigated men’s body ideals and body image in two non-WEIRD, non-White populations, Uganda (Africa) and Nicaragua (Central America), and compared them with an ethnically diverse sample of men in the United Kingdom. We also examined whether socio-cultural factors including media and ethnicity, predicted the drive for muscularity and body change behaviors among our participants. Results showed that Ugandan men had the least desire for muscularity relative to men in the United Kingdom. Supporting the Tripartite model we found that media and peer influences significantly predicted the drive for muscularity, particularly among men from White British and Nicaraguan Miskitu ethnic groups. By contrast, Creole / Garifuna and Mestizo men from Nicaragua were more likely to want to increase muscularity relative to Black African men from Uganda. Overall, our findings support previous research in demonstrating that there are cultural differences in the kind of body men desire, and that men from WEIRD and non-WEIRD populations may experience similar pressures to aspire to and attain a muscular body type. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-04-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7145896/ /pubmed/32308635 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00495 Text en Copyright © 2020 Thornborrow, Onwuegbusi, Mohamed, Boothroyd and Tovée. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Thornborrow, Tracey
Onwuegbusi, Tochukwu
Mohamed, Sophie
Boothroyd, Lynda G.
Tovée, Martin J.
Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image
title Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image
title_full Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image
title_fullStr Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image
title_full_unstemmed Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image
title_short Muscles and the Media: A Natural Experiment Across Cultures in Men’s Body Image
title_sort muscles and the media: a natural experiment across cultures in men’s body image
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7145896/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32308635
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00495
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