Body Image: Gender, Ethnic, and Age Differences

Using figure drawings (E. Fallon & P. Rozin, 1985), 120 male and female U.S. college students--African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian--indicated their current and ideal figures, the figures that they considered most attractive to the opposite sex, and the opposite-sex figures most attractive to themselves. Dissatisfaction with body shape was greater among the women regardless of ethnicity. Both the men and the women misjudged which shapes the opposite sex would rate as most attractive: The women guessed that the men preferred shapes thinner than those that they actually reported. The African American women had the most accurate perceptions of what the men found attractive, whereas the Caucasian women had the most distorted views. The men guessed that the women preferred shapes bulkier than those that they actually indicated. These findings may be relevant to the lower incidence of eating disorders among African American women and the higher incidence of such disorders among Caucasian women.