How well do you know what you look like? Research on self-perception, digested

In this study, levels of self-esteem were linked with these misperceptions — the lower a person’s self-esteem, the more likely they were to exaggerate their own hip size, and the slimmer they considered a “typical” woman to be. We make all kinds of other body-related mistakes, too. For example, when people feel powerful, they’re more likely to think they are taller than they actually are. Also, typical healthy people have a distorted sense of their body volume and length, according to a paper in Cortex in 2019. The 40 young adults involved in this study tended to overestimate the length of various body parts (such as their hands and legs) but underestimate the volume of those parts. These findings add to growing evidence that, contrary to previous assumptions, healthy adults don’t in fact have a highly accurate understanding of their own body size, the team writes. Strange body changes You might not have a great grasp of your physical body, but you probably think of it as being pretty stable. Yet it’s surprisingly easy to make people feel as though they are drastically changing. The “magic shoes” experiments led by Ana Tajadura-Jimenez are a great example. Study participants wore sandals fitted with microphones that transmitted, via headphones, only the higher-pitched portion of their walking sounds. This had the effect of making the wearer feel physically lighter. Why? The team thinks it’s because higher-pitched walking sounds are...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Feature The self Source Type: blogs