Cari Breckenridge-Brown and Dr. Steve Thomsen, Communications
Eating disorders have long been a major concern for college-aged women. It is no secret that peer pressure (also known as peer “descriptive norms”) has a strong effect on women’s self-perception. More specifically, a descriptive norm is the perception a person holds about the prevalence of a behavior or idea in the social group around them.
Descriptive norms have the potential to hold strong influence over a person as he/she attempts to socially fit in to a community. It stands to reason that a female would be willing to lose or gain weight if she felt that her body weight was strongly incongruent with the acceptable ideal of her peers.
Behavior modification as a result of descriptive norms can be healthy at times. A person addicted to dangerous drugs or who has an un-healthy body weight who modifies their behavior to fit in to the healthy average is benefited by descriptive norms. However, descriptive norms are frequently anything but accurate and often hold a negative effect.
Past research has examined what women believe is average and attractive as far as body weight and what men report finding attractive. Those studies found that women believe men desire a thinner body weight than men report they do desire. I was curious if a religious university with strong emphasis on health of the body would also have such beliefs in their student body.
In similarity to past research, I hypothesized that: (1) Women will think the average body weight and body silhouette of a female student to be lower than it actually is. (2) Women will think men desire a thinner silhouette than men report they do. (3) Women will express a greater dissatisfaction with the body weight than men. (4) Women will have a lower “ideal body weight” than men will actually desire.
Study participants were 404 students at Brigham Young University with an average age of 21.6 years old (an important fact since many eating disorders begin in the late teen or early twenties).
Students were asked to report the sex, age, year in school, approximate weight, and what they thought the “average weight of a female BYU student is.” Next, students were given a body silhouette index. Females were asked to write a 1 underneath the silhouette that reflects their body weight and a 3 underneath the silhouette that reflects their ideal body image. Males and females were asked to write a 2 underneath the silhouette that reflects the average female BYU students, a 4 underneath the silhouette that reflects the “ideal women” by the world’s standards, and a 5 underneath the silhouette that reflects the silhouette most attractive to men.
To determine body dissatisfied/satisfaction, students were given a Likert-type scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) to respond to the following statement, “I am satisfied with my body.” Students were then asked, “Which of the following is a motivating factor for you to lose weight?” The list included statements such as, “to become healthier, to keep up with current trends in fashion, to gain self-satisfaction about my body weight, to impress a member of the opposite sex, etc…” Students were asked to check all that apply.
Students were asked to respond to a list of activities and how much each activity makes them feel “more aware of your body size.” A scale was used being never aware, to always aware. Examples of activities include, watching TV, looking in the mirror, walking across campus, shopping for clothes (etc).
Students were also asked, “which of the following media do you use on a regular basis (twice a week)? The options were magazines, Facebook, MySpace, television, newspapers, and other. Finally, students were asked, “Are you (circle on): currently on a diet trying to lose weight, currently trying to maintain your current weight, currently trying to gain weight, or you do not care if you lose or gain weight.”
SPSS was used to analyses the data. The data found in this study could fill pages and pages if fully reported (obviously impossible here). The most key points were found using a simple Student’s T-test. Findings showed that women think the average body weight of a female BYU student is lower than men think, women think the “ideal women” should weigh less than men, and women also think that men find a skinner women attractive than men report. Also, of great importance, women are significantly less satisfied with their body than men.
Put simply—what women think is often not matching up with reality. As stated previously, what women think is the average is their descriptive norm. This belief can cause pressure to conform to what we now know is a false ideal—a behavior that can prove to be extremely unhealthy, and even dangerous. This research suggests that changes in our society need to be made. Many colleges engage in social norm campaigns in order to educate women on what is health and what men really want. Other researchers suggest that large changes in society need to be made (such as more ethics in advertising or using more realistic models).
It is immensely important to remember that while descriptive norms may be a part of the road to eating disorders, they are in no way a complete answer. Schools must take more measures rather than just educating females about healthy body weights. Even with all known measures accounted for, sometimes there is no explainable reason why one female develops an eating disorder and another one does not. All researchers can do is study the female mind and the world around them in an attempt to understand just what goes on. With more research and more understanding, we are that much closer to knowing how to help.