Abstract

ACUNA, Laura  and  GONZALEZ-GARCIA, Diana Alejandra. Body size labeling of other people according to the sociodemographic characteristics of the observer. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2017, vol.7, n.2, pp.2667-2678. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aipprr.2017.05.002.

The purpose of the study was to determine if body-size-labeling of other people varies according to the sex, age and educational level of the labeler. Adults (99 men and 176 women; mean age 40.52) assigned body size labels (thin, normal, overweight or obese) to eight masculine and eight feminine silhouettes. Between 1 and 82% of the participants assigned a same label to various silhouettes, that differed from the one that corresponded to the men and women represented by the silhouettes according to their body mass index. Results showed that women, younger participants and those with university studies overestimated the body size of both men and women to a greater degree than their counterparts. By contrast, men, adult participants and those with basic education underestimated the body size of men and women. Thus, body size labeling indeed varied with the sociodemographic characteristics of the observer.

Labeling feminine silhouettes tended to be more precise than labeling masculine silhouettes. It was concluded that the cultural norms of each group might have uniformed within each subgroup the labeling of third parties. Results add body-size-labeling of third parties to the previous knowledge on the influence of cultural norms on visual perception.

Keywords : size estimation; Third parties; Socio-demographic characteristics; Visual perception.

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