Experimental manipulation of muscularity preferences through visual diet and associative learning

Body preferences are somewhat flexible and this variability may be the result of one’s visual diet (whereby mere exposure to certain bodies shifts preferences), associative learning mechanisms cues health status within population internalised affect body or a mixture both effects. We tested how these factors drive changes in for muscularity male across female sample. Three studies were conducted where participants viewed manipulation images high and/or low muscle mass males which either aspirational (high clothing posture) neutral (no obvious status). Preferences recorded before after such assess whether had changed following manipulation. found evidence hypotheses. Exposure non-muscular decreased muscular irrespective image valence. alongside also led decrease preferences. Further, when conditions less obviously skewed towards particular type, still shifted direction most prevalent suggesting that demand characteristics unlikely have confounded results previous adaptation experiments with more manipulations.