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Gender differences in colour naming performance for gender specific body shape images

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Males are increasingly subjected to pressures to conform to aesthetic body stereotypes. There is, however, comparatively little published research on the aetiology o male body shape concerns. Two experiments are presented, which investigate the relation ship between gender specific body shape concerns and colour-naming performance. Each study comprised a between subject design, in which each subject was tested on a single occasion. A pictorial version of a modified Stroop task was used in both studies. Subjects colour-named gender specific obese and thin body shape images and semantically homoge neous neutral images (birds) presented in a blocked format. The first experiment investigated female subjects (N = 68) and the second investigated males (N = 56). Subjects also completed a self-report measure of eating behaviour. Currently dieting female subjects exhibited signifi cant colour-naming differences between obese and neutral images. A similar pattern o colour-naming performance was found to be related to external eating in the male subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consumer Sciences Department, Institute of Food Research, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, Reading, Berks, RG6 6BZ, UK

    N. A. Elliman M.D., M. W. Green & W. K. Wan

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  1. N. A. Elliman M.D.
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  2. M. W. Green
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  3. W. K. Wan
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Elliman, N.A., Green, M.W. & Wan, W.K. Gender differences in colour naming performance for gender specific body shape images. Eat Weight Disord 3, 17–24 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03339982

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03339982

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