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
Citation
Howay, V. (2024). Functional Stereotyping of Women’s Self-Objectification as a Function of Life History and Body Fat. Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/psycuht/59
Included in
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Mental Disorders Commons, Other Psychiatry and Psychology Commons