Experimental Manipulation of Muscularity Preferences Through Visual Diet and Associative Learning
Body preferences are somewhat flexible and this variability may be the result of one’s visual diet (whereby mere exposure to certain bodies shifts preferences), associative learning mechanisms (whereby cues to health and status within the population are internalised and affect body preferences), or a mixture of both visual diet and associative learning effects (Boothroyd et al, 2012). We tested how these factors may drive changes in preferences for muscularity in male bodies across a male and female sample. Two studies were conducted where participants viewed manipulation images of high and/or low muscle mass males which were either aspirational (high status clothing and posture) and/or neutral (no obvious cues to status). Preferences for muscularity were recorded before and after exposure to such manipulation images to assess whether body preferences had changed following manipulation. We found evidence for both the visual diet and associative learning hypotheses. Exposure to muscular (non-muscular) male bodies increased (decreased) preferences for muscular (non-muscular) bodies regardless of image valence. Exposure to aspirational non-muscular male bodies alongside neutral muscular male bodies lead to a decrease in muscularity preferences.