Even 4-Year-Olds Think Thinness Equals Beauty

In a recent study, experts found that even children as young as 4 seem to believe that being thin equals being beautiful. This finding is rather serious, since it implies that the information media conveys are received loud and clearly even by preschoolers.

Various forms of media constantly associate being thin with being beautiful, thus setting the foundation for a series of preconceptions that go on to plague society. What this work shows is that this type of behavior begins much earlier in life than first thought.

One of the factors that may help explain the results of the new study is the fact that preschoolers are already exposed, on average, to a lot more media than currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Forms of media taken into account for this research included video and computer games, watching TV or using the Internet. A study published in 2010 indicates that more than 70 percent of all preschoolers exceed AAP media exposure recommendations.

Additional details of the new investigation are published in he March issue of the scientific journal Body Image, LiveScience reports. The work was carried out by experts in Australia, who focused their attention on 160 children and young adults.

All the test participants were asked to rank the attractiveness of a set of female bodies, all of them depicted in images. All six photos contained the same woman, which had a normal weight, as calculated according to her body-mass index.

One of the six photos was left unaltered, while the others were modified to appear as either fatter or slimmer. The woman's face was censored using a dark square, the investigators say. They explain that even 4-year-olds chose the thinnest body as the most beautiful.

According to University of Queensland psychology PhD student Felicity Brown – also the lead author of the new study – kids may become increasingly addicted to the idea that thinnest is the way to beauty as they grow into teens and then young adults.

This may further contribute to supporting the general perception that the population has. Even though experts are fighting to get people to accept everyone as equal, this is unlikely to happen until this vicious circle is broken.