The U.S. Body Project I: Inspirations and Lessons Learned

Abstract

The U.S. Body Project I examined predictors and prevalence of body image concerns among 11,620 adults recruited via Mechanical Turk. Researchers were invited to propose hypotheses or conduct secondary data analysis on the anonymized dataset. This resulted in 11 papers for this special issue. The first four papers examined the demographic predictors and prevalence of (1) body satisfaction, (2) objectification and tripartite model constructs, (3) sexuality-related body image concerns, and (4) face image satisfaction. The next four papers tested different structural equation models linking objectification and tripartite constructs to outcomes among women (5) and men (6) varying in body mass, and across racial (7) and sexual orientation (8) groups. We then tested measurement invariance of the scales (9) and introduced an abbreviated measure (10), and applied machine learning to examine associations among variables (11). Here we reflect on our personal and academic journeys leading to this project, and lessons learned.