Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Brown, Mitch

Committee Member/Reader

Ditzfeld, Chris

Committee Member/Second Reader

Griffis, Melodie

Committee Member/Third Reader

Plavcan, Joseph

Abstract

Individuals prioritize different goals as a function of stability in their environment, oftentimes leading people to prioritize reproduction in hostile ecologies. From this shift in priorities, perceivers could develop heuristics about how women may attempt to attract mates. Previous research suggests that higher levels of body fat are more attractive to men with a fast life history. With this awareness of men’s preferences in body fat, high-fat women from hostile ecologies could be expected to engage in more self-objectifying behavior in the service of mate attraction or attempting present themselves as objects of affection to men. This study tasked participants with reporting their perceptions of women described as living in a hopeful or desperate ecology (proxies for slow and fast life history, respectively) who exhibited either high or low levels of body fat. These evaluations tracked expectations of these women to objectify themselves. Women were perceived as more self-objectifying at low levels of body fat. However, no effects emerged as a function of ecology. These results reflect a potential implicit theory from perceivers about how body fat shapes expectations of women’s reproductive strategies while indicating limitations in ecological cues in tracking self-objectifying tendencies.

Keywords

self-objectification, life history, mating, body fat, stereotypes

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