Overweight Bodies Research Articles

Measuring implicit associations between food and body stimuli in anorexia nervosa: a Go/No-Go Association Task

PurposeThe present study aimed to explore the implicit associations between food and bodily stimuli in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and control subjects (HC).MethodsA Go/No-Go Association Task was administrated to 55 participants (28 AN and 27 HC), using food stimuli (low-calorie food vs. high-calorie food) and body stimuli (underweight vs. overweight bodies).ResultsWe evidenced an implicit association between food and body stimuli in the AN group, whereas the HC group only showed a tendency. AN and HC groups also exhibited different categorization strategies: the AN group tended to categorize stimuli as low-calorie foods and underweight bodies less than the HC group, and they tended to categorize stimuli as high-calorie foods and overweight bodies more than the HC group.ConclusionThe present study revealed for the first time specificities of the AN population’s implicit association between food and body stimuli in terms of association strength and categorization strategy. Furthermore, the results suggest that combining implicit methodologies with other methods could contribute to a better characterization of the physiopathology of AN.Level of evidenceLevel I, experimental study.

Fat Shaming: A Neoliberal Performance Review - Unveiling the Hidden Script Behind Body Policing

The paper examines the widespread occurrence of fat shaming from the perspective of neoliberal ideology. The argument posits that fat shaming is not solely a societal stigma, but rather a deliberate strategy based on neoliberal principles that prioritise personal accountability, self-control, and economic efficiency. The study examines how overweight bodies are subjected to scrutiny and marginalisation through the analysis of cultural narratives and media portrayals. This reinforces socioeconomic hierarchies and perpetuates a cycle of discrimination and exclusion. The analysis emphasises the interconnectedness of fat shaming with matters of gender, race, and class, emphasising the necessity for a more comprehensive and analytical discussion on body politics. This critique seeks to question the underlying neoliberal ideology that supports the enforcement of societal standards on bodies, and instead promotes a more empathetic and fair approach to embracing and promoting variety and well-being.

Altered processing of conflicting body representations in women with restrictive anorexia nervosa.

Cognitive and affective impairments in processing body image have been observed in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and may induce the hypercontrolled and regulative behaviors observed in this disorder. Here, we aimed to probe the link between activation of body representations and cognitive control by investigating the ability to resolve body-related representational conflicts in women with restrictive AN and matched healthy controls (HC). Participants performed a modified version of the Flanker task in which underweight and overweight body images were presented as targets and distractors; a classic version of the task, with letters, was also administered as a control. The findings indicated that performance was better among the HC group in the task with bodies compared to the task with letters; however, no such facilitation was observed in AN patients, whose overall performance was poorer than that of the HC group in both tasks. In the task with body stimuli, performance among patients with AN was the worst on trials presenting underweight targets with overweight bodies as flankers. These results may reflect a dysfunctional association between the processing of body-related representations and cognitive control mechanisms that may aid clinicians in the development of optimal individualized treatments.

The painful pursuit of weight-loss pleasure in The Biggest Winner 4

The current article provides the first attempt to use Lévi-Strauss’s theory of binary opposition in the study of a reality TV programme, which is the Arab version of the American reality format The Biggest Loser. The major aim of this article is to reveal the stigmatization of obesity and the promotion of the thin body type in MBC’s The Biggest Winner 4. To reach this aim, a qualitative content analysis is applied to the journeys and fourteen episodes of the programme, whereby the utterances and behaviours of the different participants are coded in search of themes related to fatness and thinness using NVivo 12. The analysis comes to unveil the existence of two levels of dual reconstruction. The first superficial opposition exists between fatness and thinness, and the second binary opposition is established between pain and pleasure, which involve the opposing feelings associated with the first binary opposites of fatness and thinness. The two levels of binary opposition evidence that the narrative of the programme is predicated on building a contradiction between the pain of fatness and the pleasure of thinness to add drama to the reality show and distance Arab viewers from overweight bodies. The major finding of the study is that The Biggest Winner, despite being localized and given an Arab flavour, still echoes the same anti-fat rhetoric of the original American format and serves to promote the American cultural ideal of thinness in the Arab world.

The Real Ideal: Misestimation of Body Mass Index.

In Western cultures, the ideal body for women is thin and toned. Idealization of thinness has led many women to desire bodies with an underweight body mass index (BMI). The present study investigated women's knowledge of BMI, particularly relating to their own body ideals, to determine whether women knowingly idealize bodies categorized as “underweight.” In August 2020, one-hundred and forty-seven US women aged 18 to 25 completed two online tasks in a repeated-measures design. First, participants estimated the BMIs of a series of bodies. Then, participants selected representations of their own and ideal bodies from a figure rating scale and estimated the BMIs of their selections. Participants generally mis-estimated the BMI of bodies, but did so to a greater extent when viewing bodies as an extension of their own, i.e., following the figure rating scale task. Further, if participants selected an underweight or overweight ideal body, they were likely to estimate this body was within a “normal” weight BMI range, demonstrating that women who idealize underweight–or overweight–bodies do so unknowingly. These findings suggest misperceptions of women's own ideal body size are often greater than misperceptions of other bodies, potentially driving the tendency to idealize underweight bodies.

Giving a Body a Different Face-How Men and Women Evaluate Their Own Body vs. That of Others.

Eating disorders affect women more than men. Women reportedly dislike their body shape more and appreciate it less than do men. One factor influencing body image might be the application of different standards for oneself than for other people when evaluating bodies. To investigate this possibility, we determined whether the application of double standards is different between men and women. We presented 57 women and 54 men (aged 18–30 and of average weight) with pictures of their own bodies and pictures of average weight, overweight, and “ideal” bodies attached to the participants’ own face and to another person’s face. Participants were instructed to evaluate their emotional reaction to the pictures and then rate the various pictures on aspects of attractiveness, body fat, and muscle mass. The degree of the double standard was defined as the difference between ratings of what appeared to be one’s own body and what appeared to be someone else’s according to the presented face. The analyses revealed, firstly, that both genders applied self-deprecating double standards when viewing overweight and average-weight bodies. Women, but not men, also showed self-deprecating double standards when viewing the ideal body and their own body. By contrast, men applied fewer double standards when viewing the ideal body and self-enhancing double standards when viewing their own body. The study suggests that young, average-weight men are more or less satisfied with their own bodies, whereas young, average-weight women tend to apply a stricter standard for themselves than for others, thus devaluing their own bodies. This vulnerability to body image is hypothesized as contributing to the prevalence of eating disorders in women.

Body norms and normative bodies in Highland Guatemala.

The concept of bionormalcy highlights the potential tensions between bodies defined clinically as normal or healthy, bodies that are normative (frequent) within a population, and bodies defined within a given social context as abnormal or devalued. Theories of resource scarcity predict preferences for larger bodies should deviate from what is biologically normative (i.e., most frequent) or clinically defined as healthy. Using the case of adult women in a Guatemalan community with chronically low food security, we test how food scarcity shapes individual views of smaller, larger, and clinically categorized normal bodies. Participants were 102 women from a community in the Central Highlands of Guatemala. Using the Stunkard figure scale and a word elicitation task, participants attributed positive and negative characteristics to male and female silhouettes clinically defined as underweight, normal, overweight, mildly obese, and obese. Mixed-effects models were used to compare attribution scores for figures relative to the clinically normal silhouette. Silhouettes deviating from the clinically defined normal BMI category on both sides are stigmatized to varying degrees. Food insecurity exacerbates the degree of stigma, while also relatively preferencing overweight bodies. In this pilot study, women exhibit a preference for body sizes that fall within the clinical normal and overweight categories and stigmatize bodies outside this range, but in distinct ways. We suggest the attachment of stigma to small and large bodies are not mirror processes, and require more detailed testing to untangle the likely complex ecological and social explanations.

Misalignment between perceptual boundaries and weight categories reflects a new normal for body size perception

Combatting the current global epidemic of obesity requires that people have a realistic understanding of what a healthy body size looks like. This is a particular issue in different population sub-groups, where there may be increased susceptibility to obesity-related diseases. Prior research has been unable to systematically assess body size judgement due to a lack of attention to gender and race; our study aimed to identify the contribution of these factors. Using a data-driven multi-variate decision tree approach, we varied the gender and race of image stimuli used, and included the same diversity among participants. We adopted a condition-rich categorization visual task and presented participants with 120 unique body images. We show that gender and weight categories of the stimuli affect accuracy of body size perception. The decision pattern reveals biases for male bodies, in which participants showed an increasing number of errors from leaner to bigger bodies, particularly under-estimation errors. Participants consistently mis-categorized overweight male bodies as normal weight, while accurately categorizing normal weight. Overweight male bodies are now perceived as part of an expanded normal: the perceptual boundary of normal weight has become wider than the recognized BMI category. For female bodies, another intriguing pattern emerged, in which participants consistently mis-categorized underweight bodies as normal, whilst still accurately categorizing normal female bodies. Underweight female bodies are now in an expanded normal, in opposite direction to that of males. Furthermore, an impact of race type and gender of participants was also observed. Our results demonstrate that perceptual weight categorization is multi-dimensional, such that categorization decisions can be driven by ultiple factors.

Implicit visual sensitivity towards slim versus overweight bodies modulates motor resonance in the primary motor cortex: A tDCS study

Motor resonance (MR) can be influenced by individual differences and similarity in the physical appearance between the actor and observer. Recently, we reported that action simulation is modulated by an implicit visual sensitivity towards normal-weight compared with overweight bodies. Furthermore, recent research has suggested the existence of an action observation network responsible for MR, with limited evidence whether the primary motor cortex (M1) is part of this. We expanded our previous findings with regards to the role of an implicit normal-weight-body preference in the MR mechanism. At the same time, we tested the functional relevance of M1 to MR, by using a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) protocol. Seventeen normal-weight and 17 overweight participants were asked to observe normal-weight or overweight actors reaching and grasping a light or heavy cube, and then, at the end of each video-clip to indicate the correct cube weight. Before the task, all participants received 15 min of sham or cathodal tDCS over the left M1. Measures of anti-fat attitudes were also collected. During sham tDCS, all participants were better in simulating the actions performed by normal-weight compared with overweight models. Surprisingly, cathodal tDCS selectively improved the ability in the overweight group to simulate actions performed by the overweight models. This effect was not associated with scores of fat phobic attitudes or implicit anti-fat bias. Our findings are discussed in the context of relevance of M1 to MR and its social modulation by anti-fat attitudes.

Assessment of approach-avoidance tendencies in body image using a novel touchscreen paradigm

Background and objectivesApproaching the thin-ideal and avoiding the stigma of fatness are motivational tendencies resulting from the internalisation of sociocultural appearance norms. Individual differences in subclinical levels of eating disorder symptomatology may be related to variation in motivational tendencies regarding thin vs. non-thin bodies. MethodsTo empirically investigate this hypothesis, the current study employed a novel touchscreen approach-avoidance task with the capacity to effectively simulate compatible approach-avoidance movements. Eighty-four undergraduate females pulled closer or pushed away images depicting either bodies or objects, in response to weight category (underweight bodies vs. overweight bodies) and object category (kitchen items vs. office tools), by means of arm movements. ResultsUnexpectedly, results revealed relatively faster approach of overweight bodies and relatively faster avoidance of underweight bodies. Moreover, speeded approach towards overweight bodies, relative to underweight bodies, correlated positively with elevated eating disorder symptomatology. LimitationsThe current sample was restricted to undergraduate women. ConclusionsThe current study provides initial evidence for the utility of a touchscreen-based measure of approach-avoidance tendencies in body image, albeit comparison with other bias assessments would be necessary. Moreover, our findings suggest that a greater tendency to approach overweight bodies is associated with elevated eating disorder symptomatology. Future extensions of the current work are necessary to clarify the function of motivational tendencies in the body image context.

Running for Success: Marathon Boom and Middle-Class Bodies in Estonia

Since the turn of the millennium, the number of Estonians running at least one marathon a year has grown nearly twentyfold. This paper links the marathon boom in Estonia to novel ideas about the “good life” among a subset of the country’s middle class, also situating the phenomenon in the broader context of post-1991 socio-economic changes. Drawing on fifty narrative interviews with recreational runners and a content analysis of various runners’ blogs, the article pays special attention to “runners’ bodies.” Recreational marathoners consciously put their bodies at the service of their “selves” by submitting the body to regular physical strain, which fits with their distinctively middle-class ideals of self-discipline, motivation, diligence, and perseverance. But runners’ bodies are also “bodies for others”—they not only encapsulate but also display these ideals. Approaching runners’ bodies as “bodies for selves” and as “bodies for others,” the article makes two arguments. Firstly, a fit body as physical capital and the “purposeful suffering” that long-distance running almost inevitably leads to have recently shifted to the core of living a “good life” in the case of growing numbers of the Estonian middle class. Secondly, the “others” for middle-class runners’ bodies are first and foremost the sedentary and generally overweight bodies of their own class. For a subset of the Estonian middle class, a slim and fit running body, in combination with changed consumption practices and reference groups, serves to distinguish themselves from the generalised idea of a middle-class person in today’s Estonia.

Perceptions of the healthiest body in a market-integrating indigenous population in Argentina: Fat idealization and gendered generational differences.

Market integration seems to induce gender-specific generational change in health-related perceptions of body size. We predicted that among the Qom of Argentina, younger women would perceive comparatively thinner bodies as healthiest, demonstrating thin-idealizing body norms, and older women would retain culturally rooted perceptions of heavier bodies as healthiest. As traditional and globalized body size ideals are different for men, we predicted that men would perceive normal bodies as healthiest and would not exhibit generational differences. We asked Qom adults (n = 273) residing in Namqom, Argentina to choose the healthiest body size from the Stunkard Figure Rating Scale (FRS). We performed multiple linear regression with age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) predicting healthy-body perception score. A majority of women chose overweight bodies as healthiest. As predicted, older women preferred heavier bodies compared to their younger peers; this generational effect was stronger among women clinically defined as underweight (BMI ≤19.99 kg/m2 ), and "normal" weight (20.00 kg/m2 ≤ BMI ≤24.99 kg/m2 ), as compared to women clinically defined as overweight (25.00 kg/m2 ≤ BMI ≤29.99 kg/m2 ) or obese (≥30.00 kg/m2 ). Men exhibited no generational effects and largely perceived bodies corresponding to a "normal" BMI as healthiest. Among Qom women, there is evidence for the adoption of the idealization of thinness as healthy alongside traditional perceptions that fat bodies are healthy.

A systematic and methodological review of attentional biases in eating disorders: Food, body, and perfectionism.

ObjectiveThe current systematic and methodological review aimed to critically review existing literature utilizing implicit processing, or automatic approach‐ and/or avoidance‐related attentional biases between eating disorder (ED) and nonclinical samples, which (a) highlights how psychophysiological methods advance knowledge of ED implicit bias; (b) explains how findings fit into transdiagnostic versus disorder‐specific ED frameworks; and (c) suggests how research can address perfectionism‐related ED biases.MethodThree databases were systematically searched to identify studies: PubMed, Scopus, and PsychInfo electronic databases. Peer‐reviewed studies of 18‐ to 39‐year‐olds with both clinical ED and healthy samples assessing visual attentional biases using pictorial and/or linguistic stimuli related to food, body, and/or perfectionism were included.ResultsForty‐six studies were included. While behavioral results were often similar across ED diagnoses, studies incorporating psychophysiological measures often revealed disease‐specific attentional biases. Specifically, women with bulimia nervosa (BN) tend to approach food and other body types, whereas women with anorexia nervosa (AN) tend to avoid food as well as overweight bodies.ConclusionsFurther integration of psychophysiological and behavioral methods may identify subtle processing variations in ED, which may guide prevention strategies and interventions, and provide important clinical implications. Few implicit bias studies include male participants, investigate binge‐eating disorder, or evaluate perfectionism‐relevant stimuli, despite the fact that perfectionism is implicated in models of ED.

Gender Differences in Body Evaluation: Do Men Show More Self-Serving Double Standards Than Women?

Generally speaking, compared to women, men are less dissatisfied with their own body and consider themselves to be better-looking and less overweight. So far, however, it is unclear whether these divergent body ratings arise from the application of double standards. With the present study, we examined whether men apply different standards to their own body than to other men’s bodies and whether they differ from women in this regard. To this aim, we presented n = 104 women and n = 93 men with pictures of thin, average-weight, overweight, athletic and hypermuscular male and female bodies on a computer screen. To manipulate identification, we showed the bodies of the respective participant’s gender once with the participant’s own face and once with the face of another person. Identity cues, such as faces, might activate different body schemata, which influence body ratings and thus lead to the application of double standards. Participants were instructed to rate their emotional reaction to the bodies according to valence and arousal, and to rate the bodies with respect to attractiveness, body fat, and muscle mass. The application of double standards was determined by calculating the difference between the rating of a body presented with the participant’s face and the rating of the same body presented with another person’s face. Both women and men showed self-deprecating double standards in valence, body attractiveness, body fat and muscle mass for the overweight body. Men also revealed self-deprecating double standards for the thin, average-weight and hypermuscular bodies, but evaluated the athletic body as more attractive and with a higher positive feeling when it was presented with their own face. Women did not show any self-serving double standards and showed fewer self-deprecating double standards than men. The results indicate that men devalue non-ideal bodies and upvalue ideal bodies when they are self-related, whereas women more rate in a fair-minded manner. Thus, in contrast to women, an advantage for men may be that they are able to self-enhance in the case of desirable bodies. This ability to self-enhance regarding desirable features might be beneficial for men’s self-worth and body satisfaction.

Sustained hypervigilance for one’s own body in women with weight and shape concerns: Competition effects in early visual processing investigated by steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP)

This study aimed to analyze the covert attentional time course in early body processing areas in women with high body concerns. Therefore, we assessed the effect of pictures of one’s own body and other bodies as distractions from a demanding dot detection task in 24 women with low and 20 women with high body concerns. Participants were instructed to attend to flickering dots eliciting steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) measured by EEG. Both groups showed a sustained SSVEP amplitude reduction, which was more pronounced for average-weight or thin bodies than for overweight bodies. For women with high body concerns, SSVEP amplitudes decreased more in the case of pictures of their own body. The results indicate covert vigilance and maintenance patterns for body stimuli, especially for bodies representing the thin ideal. Moreover, women with high body concerns attend more to information about their own body, which might maintain body dissatisfaction.

Effects of postmortem positional changes on conjunctival petechiae

The present study aimed to determine whether postmortem period, physical constitution, cause of death, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation are associated with positional changes in the postmortem appearance of conjunctival petechiae. We retrospectively investigated serial forensic autopsies from 6 h to 6 days postmortem (n = 442; male, 303; female, 139; median age, 62 years; range, 0–100 years). The causes of death were sharp instrument injury, blunt force trauma, fire, intoxication, asphyxia, drowning, hypothermia, hyperthermia, acute heart failure, and natural causes. Of these, 28 (male, n = 18; female, n = 10) were aged ≤5 years. Palpebral conjunctival petechiae were initially assessed at autopsy in supine bodies, then reassessed in prone bodies after 30 min. Among 414 bodies, 291 (70.2%) and 123 (29.7%) who were aged between 6 and 100 years, and 18 (64.2%) and 10 (35.7%) aged <5 years at the time of death, were discovered in the supine and prone positions, respectively. The amounts of petechiae increased within 1.5 days postmortem, but not in those discovered in the prone position. The rates at which petechiae increased were higher in supine overweight bodies (BMI ≥ 25.0) and in those who were discovered supine and had died of asphyxia or drowning (37.5%). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation for bodies discovered in the supine and prone positions did not statistically affect the occurrence of petechiae. Several postmortem factors can cause hypostatic blood redistribution that manifests as increased amounts of petechiae in the palpebral conjunctivae.

Double standards in body evaluation? How identifying with a body stimulus influences ratings in women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

Women with eating disorders (ED) evaluate their own body more negatively than do women without ED. However, it is unclear whether this negative rating is due to objective bodily features or different standards for one's own body and others' bodies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether women with ED apply double standards when rating bodies by disentangling the objective features of one's own body from the feelings of ownership. We presented n = 34 women with anorexia nervosa, n = 31 women with bulimia nervosa, and n = 114 healthy controls with pictures of thin, average-weight, overweight, athletic, and hypermuscular bodies. Identity was manipulated by showing each body once with the participant's own face and once with the face of another woman. Participants were instructed to report their emotional state according to valence and arousal and to rate body attractiveness, body fat, and muscle mass. Women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa displayed greater self-deprecating double standards in body fat rating than did women without ED, as quantified by the difference between the ratings of the same body with one's own versus another woman's face. Double standards reflected in valence, arousal and attractiveness ratings were significantly more pronounced in women with anorexia nervosa than in women without ED. The double standards found may be due to an activation of dysfunctional self-related body schemata, which distort body evaluation depending on identity. Double standards related to body fat were characteristic for women with ED, but not for women without ED.

Neural correlates of body comparison and weight estimation in weight-recovered anorexia nervosa: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

BackgroundThe neural mechanisms underlying body dissatisfaction and emotional problems evoked by social comparisons in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) are currently unclear. Here, we elucidate patterns of brain activation among recovered patients with AN (recAN) during body comparison and weight estimation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).MethodsWe used fMRI to examine 12 patients with recAN and 13 healthy controls while they performed body comparison and weight estimation tasks with images of underweight, healthy weight, and overweight female bodies. In the body comparison task, participants rated their anxiety levels while comparing their own body with the presented image. In the weight estimation task, participants estimated the weight of the body in the presented image. We used between-group region of interest (ROI) analyses of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal to analyze differences in brain activation patterns between the groups. In addition, to investigate activation outside predetermined ROIs, we performed an exploratory whole-brain analysis to identify group differences.ResultsWe found that, compared to healthy controls, patients with recAN exhibited significantly greater activation in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) when comparing their own bodies with images of underweight female bodies. In addition, we found that, compared with healthy controls, patients with recAN exhibited significantly smaller activation in the middle temporal gyrus corresponding to the extrastriate body area (EBA) when comparing their own bodies, irrespective of weight, during self-other comparisons of body shape.ConclusionsOur findings from a group of patients with recAN suggest that the pathology of AN may lie in an inability to regulate negative affect in response to body images via pgACC activation during body comparisons. The findings also suggest that altered body image processing in the brain persists even after recovery from AN.

DISCRIMINAÇÃO BASEADA NO PESO: REPRESENTAÇÕES SOCIAIS DE INTERNAUTAS SOBRE A GORDOFOBIA

O termo gordofobia tem sido comumente empregado para definir formas de discriminação a corpos acima do peso. Objetivou-se conhecer as representações sociais da gordofobia elaboradas por usuários de internet. Realizou-se uma pesquisa documental com base na seleção de comentários de internautas frente a uma matéria sobre gordofobia veiculada pela revista Superinteressante. As opiniões selecionadas constituíram um corpus textual que foi submetido à análise lexical pelo IRAMUTEQ, desdobrando cinco classes temáticas: (i) "A saúde como discurso justificador da discriminação", (ii) "Gordo versus Magro: instituindo diferenças", (iii) "Emagrecimento: reforço versus desconstrução do padrão", (iv) "Gordofobia: invenção ou realidade?" e (v) "Gordofobia e a (in)adequabilidade de ações afirmativas". Em linhas gerais, ancoradas no argumento técnico-científico da obesidade como doença epidêmica, as representações dos internautas legitimaram processos de preconceito e discriminação em relação às pessoas obesas. Ademais, a proposição irônica dos internautas quanto à política de cotas para pessoas gordas demonstrou a insatisfação quanto à existência de ações afirmativas promotoras da igualdade entre grupos sociais, ratificando a ideia de que privilégios não podem ser conferidos a "grupos inferiores" ou desvalorizados e que estes, para serem merecidamente respeitados pela sociedade, devem buscar a adequação dos seus corpos ao padrão de refinamento. Neste contexto, com a função de tornar irrelevante o tema da gordofobia, desqualificando a abordagem do assunto pela revista, observaram-se estratégias representacionais direcionadas à negação da sua existência, comparando sofrimentos entre grupos ou instituindo diferenças (gordos x magros). Considerando a escassez de pesquisas sobre discriminação baseada no peso no Brasil, novos estudos são sugeridos.

Double standards in body evaluation? The influence of identification with body stimuli on ratings of attractiveness, body fat, and muscle mass.

Although it is well documented that women evaluate their own body differently from other bodies, it remains unclear whether this discrepancy is based on double standards because of identity or on objective differences between these bodies. The aim of this study was therefore to test whether women apply double standards depending on a body's identity when evaluating the same bodies presented with different faces. Average-weight women (N = 104) rated body attractiveness, body fat, and muscle mass of thin, average-weight, overweight, athletic, and hypermuscular bodies with either another female's face or their own face. With their own face, subjects rated overweight bodies as more unattractive, higher in body fat and lower in muscle mass than with another female's face. However, for non-overweight bodies, body ratings did not differ depending on body identity. Based on the self-deprecating double standards for overweight bodies, a body-related identity bias might be considered in theoretical models of body image.Level of evidence Level V, descriptive study.