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Brief Report: Exposure to Muscular Male Models Decreases Men’s Body Satisfaction

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Abstract

The current study was designed to examine the effect of exposure to muscular ideal bodies on body satisfaction in men. College men (N= 104) at a medium-sized mid-south university completed the Body Assessment (BA)scale, which measures body satisfaction, before and after exposure to either muscular or nonmuscular advertisements. BA scores were examined using a repeated measures (pre and post) ANOVA with muscularity of image (view images of muscular men vs. view images ofaverage men) as the between-participants factor. Results indicated that men’s self-rated body satisfaction decreased after viewing images of muscular men but did not change after viewing images of average men. Thus, it appears that men’s body satisfaction may be influenced by exposure to brief images of muscular models. These results are congruent with results of previous investigations of the effects of viewing images of thin models on women’s body satisfaction.

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Correspondence to Frederick G. Grieve.

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Lorenzen, L.A., Grieve, F.G. & Thomas, A. Brief Report: Exposure to Muscular Male Models Decreases Men’s Body Satisfaction. Sex Roles 51, 743–748 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-004-0723-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-004-0723-0

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