I have no full-length mirrors in my house, except for one which I have to open a closet to get to. (I didn’t plan it that way, it’s just how it worked out.) My brother and sister-in-law’s new house — which I just happened to visit last week — is full of them, though.
I check myself standing in the mirror every day, but watching my reflection sitting down, or playing on the floor with the kids, was enough to inspire me to do some pretty heavy toning work when I got home. While I have no doubt that those mirrors were revealing to me what I’ve been denying to myself, researchers at the University College London say women have a tendency to distort their own body image, so much in fact, that the women in their study believed themselves to be up to two thirds wider than they really are.
From the Daily Mail:
Researchers asked volunteers to place their left hand under a board and guess the positions of the knuckles and fingertips, pointing them out with a baton.
The results, reported today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were used to assess mental models of finger length and hand width.
In general, participants estimated their hands to be about two-thirds wider, and a third shorter, than actual measurements showed they were.
Researchers say that these same findings could be generalized to the entire body. Meaning that when women look at themselves in the mirror or in pictures, they see themselves as shorter and wider than they really are. Study leader Dr. Matthew Longo said this:
There may be a general bias towards perceiving the body to be wider than it is. Some people look in the mirror and receive information which tells them they are not fat, but they still can’t use that to override their distorted body model and make themselves believe it.
While I’m not sure I’m buying that this study can be generalized so easily, it’s true that women (sadly) have a tendency to not like what they see in the mirror. We talk a lot about how the media impresses this impossible idea of a perfect body upon us. But, what if it’s really our own brains telling us that we’re shorter and wider than we really are?
What do you think?
So, so true and something we often subconsciously do. As the mom of a 12 year old I catch myself all the time on the verge of making a disparaging comment about myself that she could well subconsciously apply to herself… such a shame self-esteem is still so tied into how we look and not our talents and skills. Thank you!
one of the reasons women feel this is, is because of the view society puts on women and how they should look. If you see on TV there are always programs about how to lose weight and get that beach body and a lot of these programs are ineffective. This view of a distorted person is very common I have seen it in a lot of my students. Good article very informative.
i agree: women tend to have a distorted perception of their body, but this study isn’t the one to prove it. (how does mistaking the size of your hand prove you’ll mistake EVERY part of your anatomy? that’s a bit of a stretch.)
i just wonder…is this a nature issue, or nurture? like 500 years ago when it was a sign of wealth to have some junk-in-the-trunk, did women still see them selves as larger than they were? (which would be nature, despite the positive stigma of a larger frame.) or has this distorted image been created by today’s society?
I know that I see myself as a lot wider than what I really am. Especially when I sit down and see my thighs all smooshed out on a chair. Others see me as being very thin, but I just don’t see it. I believe I’m thin, but not overly so.
No study is ever applicable to everyone, ever.
I ended up looking up my weight, height and other measurements via an image search. When I found someone who has these same measurements– I just assumed that this is what I look like to others.
Very interesting article indeed! I guess the question here is not whether is study is correct or to applicable to everyone or not. What needs to be changed or analyzed is the desire of having the so called “perfect body”. While fitness is necessary for everybody, the shape of a fit body may vary from person to person. Not many people are ready to accept this fact. They crave for the image that they perceive as the perfect body and are depressed when they don’t see what they had hoped for in the mirrors.