Body image research - overview

Our lab runs research at Durham on body perception and body ideals in children and adults. This research includes cognitive, developmental and a large cross-cultural perspective. See below for recent and ongoing research.

Projects

Television and Beauty Ideals in Rural Nicaragua

This research project brought together Psychologists and Anthropologists to study the impacts of television on beauty ideals in rural Nicaragua.Project Leader: Prof Lynda Boothroyd, Durham UniversityCo-Investigator: Prof Martin Tovee, University of LincolnSteering committee: Prof Robert Barton, Dr Mike Burt, Dr Liz Evans, Dr Mark Jamieson Research associate: Dr Jean-Luc JuckerDoctoral researcher: Dr Tracey Thornborrow Funding: This research is funded by a Leverhulme Trust […]

Body image interventions in rapidly developing populations.

These projects explore with local populations, how best to foster body image resilience, and prevent the development of eating disorders, in populations gaining increasing access to mass media and globalised appearance ideals.

Cognitive Underpinnings of Body Ideals

In collaboration with Prof Martin Tovee and Dr Thomas Pollet, these studies are seeking to understand how cognitive processes may contribute to the way in which we represent and express perceptions of body shape attractiveness. For instance: different forms of learning may both contribute to changes in body weight preferences; dissonance based interventions may affect implicit thin-bias

Batish, A., Parchment, A., Handy, E., Tovée, M. J., & Boothroyd, L. G. (2025). Body size aftereffects are adult-like from 7 years onward. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 254, Article 106203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106203
Jacques, K., Evans, E., & Boothroyd, L. (2021). Experimental manipulation of muscularity preferences through visual diet and associative learning. PLoS ONE, 16(8), Article e0255403. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255403
Boothroyd, L., Tovée, M., & Pollett, T. (2012). Visual Diet versus Associative Learning as Mechanisms of Change in Body Size Preferences. PLoS ONE, 7(11), Article e48691. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048691

Body Ideals and Body Image Across Development

These studies examine body image and body size ideals in children and young people. For instance: sociocultural pressures drive disordered eating attitudes from an early age and playing with ultra-thin fashion dolls may drive preferences for thinner bodies in young girls.

Example papers:
Evans, E., Tovee, M., Boothroyd, L., & Drewett, R. (2013). Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes in 7 to 11-year-old girls: testing a sociocultural model. Body Image, 10(1), 8-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.10.001
Boothroyd, L., Tovée, M., & Evans, E. (2021). Can realistic dolls protect body satisfaction in young girls?. Body Image, 37, 172-180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.02.004
Hanson, L. N., et al. (2025). Risk factors for eating disorder symptoms at 15 years of age: a 9-year longitudinal cohort study. Appetite, 214, Article 108149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2025.108149