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Not half bad: self and other judgements of body size and attractiveness across the life span
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Not half bad: self and other judgements of body size and attractiveness across the life span

N. Donaghue and N. Smith
Sex Roles, Vol.58(11), pp.875-882
2008
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9408-4
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Abstract

body image gender self-evaluation self-enhancement
Self-deprecating judgements of body size are a robust exception to the general tendency for people to make self-enhancing judgements of themselves. This paper investigates whether the failure to make self-enhancing body size judgements also generalises to judgements of other physically grounded attributes, namely, physical attractiveness and sexiness. Sixty Australian women and men aged between 18 and 88 years of age were photographed, and their own ratings of their body size, attractiveness and sexiness were compared with those made of them by others. Women and men made self-deprecating judgements of body size, but made self-enhancing judgements of attractiveness and sexiness. We suggest that the unambiguous nature of cultural standards for body size, rather than low self-esteem, accounts for the self-deprecating judgements of body size made by men and women.

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