The effect of the thin body ideal in a media-naïve population

The thin ideal is the western concept of an ideally slim or underweight female body 1 , and its omnipresence in the mass media has a negative impact on women’s health 2-5 . Media consumption is associated with a drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and disordered eating in women of western and/or industrialised societies 4 . Furthermore, cross-cultural research suggests that the media have similar effects when they are introduced into non-western or non-industrialised societies 2,6,7 . No study, however, has attempted to induce a change in female body size ideals in a population that is not exposed to the thin ideal and that has currently no access to the media. Here we show experimentally that a short exposure to the thin ideal can change body size ideals in a media-naïve population. 80 rural Nicaraguan men and women with very low to non-existent media access created their ideal female body before and after seeing photographs of either thin or plus size fashion models. Analyses revealed a significant interaction between time and group, meaning that exposure to media images shifted the subjects’ ideal female body size. We discuss problems posed by the pervasiveness of the thin body ideal in the context of the global obesity pandemic.