最新研究指出，當女性被問到對自己的身體有多滿意時，男性看待女性的概念是關鍵，當女性認為男性喜歡較豐滿的女子時，對自己的體重比較滿意。
　　
　　位於達拉斯的南美以美大學研究人員發現，認為男性比較喜歡體型豐滿而不是像模特兒一樣瘦的女性，對自己的體重比較滿意。
　　
　　根據研究人員表示，這對於女性的心智與身體健康很重要，因為之前有研究指出，對身材比較滿意的女性傾向於吃得比較好、較常運動、較有自信。南美以美大學的社會心理學家Andrea Meltzer表示，她們也傾向於比較不憂鬱、沒有飲食問題以及過度節食的情形。
　　
　　這篇研究刊載在最近一期社會心理學與人格科學（Social Psychological and Personality Science）期刊中。
　　
　　資料來源：http://www.24drs.com/WebMD/chinese_t.asp?page=1&who=091e9c5e810b8cbc

Telling Women That Men Desire Women With Bodies Larger Than the Thin-Ideal Improves Women’s Body Satisfaction

Abstract

One source of women’s body dissatisfaction appears to be the media’s suggestion that men desire extremely thin women. Thus, three independent experiments examined whether reversing this suggestion would improve women’s weight satisfaction. In all three studies, women viewed images of female models with bodies larger than the thin-ideal. Women who were randomly assigned to be told that men found those models attractive experienced increased weight satisfaction compared to women who were not given any information (Studies 1 and 2) and women who were told that men preferred ultra-thin women (Study 2). Study 3 (a) provided evidence for the theoretical mechanism—internalization of the thin-ideal—and (b) revealed that telling women that other women find larger models attractive does not yield similar benefits. These findings extend the tripartite influence model by demonstrating that women’s beliefs about men’s body preferences are an important moderator of the association between media influence and women’s body satisfaction.

另外一篇參考：

Women's Self-Esteem and What Men Want

Participants reported higher body satisfaction when they were told men were attracted to average-sized models.

Last summer, Meghan Trainor’s doo-woppy single “All About That Bass” was seen by a lot of people as a body-positive empowerment anthem, with its condemnation of magazine Photoshop, and accompanying video of people of all sizes dancing in front of pastel backgrounds. But other people took issue with some of the lyrics—“I’ve got that boom boom that all the boys chase,” or “boys like a little more booty to hold at night.” Writers at Jezebel, Slate, and other publications accused the song of implying that self-esteem comes from male acceptance, that of course women shouldn’t worry about their size, because men still like them.

“Loving yourself because dudes like what you’ve got going on is a pretty flimsy form of self-acceptance,” Chloe Angyal wrote at Feministing. “In fact, it’s not really self-acceptance at all if it depends on other people thinking you’re hot.”

Trainor’s message might not be a perfect one, but new research shows it is effective. A recent studypublished in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that telling women men were attracted to non-stick-thin models increased their body satisfaction.

The researchers, from Southern Methodist University and Florida State University, had undergraduate heterosexual women look at images of plus-sized models (“plus-sized” in model terms—the models in the photos were estimated to be between a size 8 and 10, or “representative of the average female undergraduate,” the study says). In some cases, the width of the pictures was reduced by 30 percent, “to depict the thin-ideal.”

The women were either told that men picked the images because they found them attractive, or just that the images were taken from the media. In one experiment, another control group was told that men prefer thin women.

The participants reported higher satisfaction with their weight when they were told men were attracted to the average-sized models. But body satisfaction when women were told nothing was the same as when they were told men are attracted to ultra-thin women. This didn’t surprise the researchers, though.

“We did not expect women who were led to believe that men desired the ultra-thin women would necessarily feel worse about their bodies than the women who were not given any information,” they write. “The media already makes it clear that men desire ultra-thin women and we believed women told nothing would rely on this perception.”

Most people's self-esteem springs are muddied in some way.

With that sad conclusion in hand, the researchers tried one more test—telling the participants that other women preferred the average-sized models. That did nothing. The researchers suggest that “what women think men desire” may account for, at least partially, the relationship between the prevalence of super-thin images of women in the media, and poor body satisfaction among women who see those images. “For example, men in the media are more likely to date, provide physical affection to, and/or engage in sexual relations with thinner women compared to larger women,” the study reads. These portrayals may be part of why women tend to overestimate how thin men want them to be.

Perhaps it’s true that the purest form of self-esteem comes from the self and the self alone, or alternately, from a crystal-clear self-esteem spring in the mountains, probably with a lot of deer nearby. But most people’s springs are muddied in some way, by others’ expectations or what they perceive others’ expectations to be. And previous research has linked feeling accepted to women feeling “less concerned about their size over time…[suggesting] those women might have been driven to diet and exercise in healthier, more sustainable ways,” as my colleague Olga Khazan wrote. Feeling desirable could be one facet of that.