scholarly journals The Self in the Mind’s Eye: Revealing How We Truly See Ourselves Through Reverse Correlation

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110186
Author(s):  
Lara Maister ◽  
Sophie De Beukelaer ◽  
Matthew R. Longo ◽  
Manos Tsakiris
Keyword(s):  
Body Shape ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Correlation Technique ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Total N ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

Is there a way to visually depict the image people “see” of themselves in their minds’ eyes? And if so, what can these mental images tell us about ourselves? We used a computational reverse-correlation technique to explore individuals’ mental “self-portraits” of their faces and body shapes in an unbiased, data-driven way (total N = 116 adults). Self-portraits were similar to individuals’ real faces but, importantly, also contained clues to each person’s self-reported personality traits, which were reliably detected by external observers. Furthermore, people with higher social self-esteem produced more true-to-life self-portraits. Unlike face portraits, body portraits had negligible relationships with individuals’ actual body shape, but as with faces, they were influenced by people’s beliefs and emotions. We show how psychological beliefs and attitudes about oneself bias the perceptual representation of one’s appearance and provide a unique window into the internal mental self-representation—findings that have important implications for mental health and visual culture.

scholarly journals The Self in the Mind’s Eye: Reverse-correlating one’s self reveals how psychological beliefs and attitudes shape our body-image

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Maister ◽  
Sophie De Beukelaer ◽  
Matthew Longo ◽  
Manos Tsakiris
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Correlation Technique ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

How do we ‘see’ ourselves in our mind’s eye? The question of how we represent our self has been at the centre of cultural practices across centuries, as the long tradition of self-portraits attests, and at the centre of our understanding of mental health issues such as body-image disorders. By implementing a reverse-correlation technique to measure self-representations, we were able to visualise participants’ mental images of both their faces and their body-shapes in a data-driven, unconstrained way, allowing us to visually depict how the self is ‘seen’ in our minds. Our technique was successful, revealing ‘self-portraits’ which were strikingly accurate. However, importantly, we discovered that the facial features of the self-portraits also contained ‘clues’ to each person’s self-reported personality traits, which were reliably detected by external observers. Finally, the higher the participants’ self-esteem with regards to social interactions, the more accurate and true-to-life their self-portraits were. Unlike the facial self-portraits, the body-shape portraits had negligible direct relationships with individuals’ actual body shape, but as with faces, they were significantly influenced by people’s beliefs and emotions; individuals with lower body self-esteem visually represented their bodies as wider. Together, our findings show how psychological beliefs and attitudes about one’s self bias the perceptual representation of one’s appearance, and provide a unique revealing window to into the internal mental representation of one’s self, with important implications for mental health and visual culture.

scholarly journals Blatant dehumanization in the mind's eye: Prevalent even among those who explicitly reject it?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D Petsko ◽  
Ryan Lei ◽  
Jonas R. Kunst ◽  
Emile Bruneau ◽  
Nour Kteily
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
The Political ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Political Right ◽  
Mind's Eye

Research suggests that some people, particularly those on the political right, have a tendency to blatantly dehumanize low-status groups. However, these findings have largely relied on self-report measures, which are notoriously subject to social desirability concerns. To better understand just how widely blatant forms of intergroup dehumanization might extend, the present paper leverages an unobtrusive, data-driven perceptual task to examine how U.S. respondents mentally represent ‘Americans’ vs. ‘Arabs’ (a low-status group in the U.S. that is often explicitly targeted with blatant dehumanization). Data from two reverse-correlation experiments (original N = 108; pre-registered replication N = 336) and seven rating studies (N = 2,301) suggest that U.S. respondents’ mental representations of Arabs are significantly more dehumanizing than their representations of Americans. Furthermore, analyses indicate that this phenomenon is not reducible to a general tendency for our sample to mentally represent Arabs more negatively than Americans. Finally, these findings reveal that blatantly dehumanizing representations of Arabs can be just as prevalent among individuals exhibiting low levels of explicit dehumanization (e.g., liberals) as among individuals exhibiting high levels of explicit dehumanization (e.g., conservatives)—a phenomenon into which exploratory analyses suggest liberals may have only limited awareness. Taken together, these results suggest that blatant dehumanization may be more widespread than previously recognized, and that it can persist even in the minds of those who explicitly reject it.

scholarly journals Influence of the fear of death on body image evaluation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Alicja Głębocka ◽  
Magdalena Rudlicka ◽  
Grzegorz Kulik
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Physical Attractiveness ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Body Esteem ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Body ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Body Shapes

Background: Research on the consequences of fear of death often consists of classical investigations within the sphere of social psychology. However, the aspect of body image regarding this issue remains largely unexplored. Aim of the study: The goal of the conducted experiment was to examine the mechanisms reducing the fear of death. The respondents had two options to choose from: (1) increasing self-esteem in terms of physical attractiveness, or (2) lowering the rating of the body image presented in the photographs. Material and methods: The study was conducted using the following tests: (1) the Memory Test, developed by Łukaszewski and Buczny; (2) the Body-Esteem Scale (BE S), developed by Franzoi and Shields; (3) the UMACL Mood Adjective Checklist, developed by Mathews, Chamberlain, and Jones; and (4) the Body Shape Attractiveness Questionnaire. In this report, we present results of an analysis of 221 respondents (108 women and 113 men). Results: Death-related thoughts influence the perception of female body attractiveness. Respondents with awareness of mortality salience rated the attractiveness of body shape as lower than respondents from the control group. Conclusions: The present experiment confirmed the influence of fear of death on the evaluation of cultural and biological standards of female physical attractiveness, as well as, the hesitation of participants’ self-esteem and mood related to sex. The lack of critical evaluation of others and a positive self-evaluation effectively protects an individual against mood deterioration, and these effects were observed among men. However, these mechanisms do not apply to women, since women reacted critically to both body shapes in the photographs and their own bodies.

The Impact of Visual Stereotypes on Judgments about Rape

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-140
Author(s):  
Robert Busching ◽  
Johannes Lutz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Rape Myth ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Correlation Technique ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Legal Judgments ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Legally irrelevant information like facial features is used to form judgments about rape cases. Using a reverse-correlation technique, it is possible to visualize criminal stereotypes and test whether these representations influence judgments. In the first step, images of the stereotypical faces of a rapist, a thief, and a lifesaver were generated. These images showed a clear distinction between the lifesaver and the two criminal representations, but the criminal representations were rather similar. In the next step, the images were presented together with rape scenarios, and participants (N = 153) indicated the defendant’s level of liability. Participants with high rape myth acceptance scores attributed a lower level of liability to a defendant who resembled a stereotypical lifesaver. However, no specific effects of the image of the stereotypical rapist compared to the stereotypical thief were found. We discuss the findings with respect to the influence of visual stereotypes on legal judgments and the nature of these mental representations.

scholarly journals SmartFit: Smartphone Application for Garment Fit Detection

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Kamrul H. Foysal ◽  
Hyo Jung Chang ◽  
Francine Bruess ◽  
Jo Woon Chong
Keyword(s):  
Body Shape ◽  
Online Shopping ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Shape Detection ◽  
Time Saving ◽  
Apparel Shopping ◽  
Promising Solution ◽  
Clothing Fit ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Garment Fit

The apparel e-commerce industry is growing day by day. In recent times, consumers are particularly interested in an easy and time-saving way of online apparel shopping. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated more need for an effective and convenient online shopping solution for consumers. However, online shopping, particularly online apparel shopping, has several challenges for consumers. These issues include sizing, fit, return, and cost concerns. Especially, the fit issue is one of the cardinal factors causing hesitance and drawback in online apparel purchases. The conventional method of clothing fit detection based on body shapes relies upon manual body measurements. Since no convenient and easy-to-use method has been proposed for body shape detection, we propose an interactive smartphone application, “SmartFit”, that will provide the optimal fitting clothing recommendation to the consumer by detecting their body shape. This optimal recommendation is provided by using image processing and machine learning that are solely dependent on smartphone images. Our preliminary assessment of the developed model shows an accuracy of 87.50% for body shape detection, producing a promising solution to the fit detection problem persisting in the digital apparel market.

scholarly journals Higher Impulse Electromyostimulation Contributes to Psychological Satisfaction and Physical Development in Healthy Men

Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Kangho Kim ◽  
Denny Eun ◽  
Yong-Seok Jee
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Subcutaneous Fat ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Visceral Fat Area ◽  
Total Fat ◽  
Muscle Groups

Background and Objectives: This study investigated the various impulse effects of whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) on psychophysiological responses and adaptations. Materials and Methods: The participants included fifty-four men between 20 and 27 years of age who practiced isometric exercises for 20 min, three days a week, for 12 weeks while wearing WB-EMS suits, which enabled the simultaneous activation of eight muscle groups with three types of impulse intensities. Participants were allocated to one of four groups: control group (CON), low-impulse-intensity group (LIG), mid-impulse-intensity group (MIG), and high-impulse-intensity group (HIG). Psychophysiological conditions were measured at week 0, week 4, week 8, and week 12. Results: Compared with the CON, (1) three psychological conditions in LIG, MIG, and HIG showed positive tendencies every four weeks, and the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test revealed that body image (p = 0.004), body shape (p = 0.007), and self-esteem (p = 0.001) were significantly different among the groups. (2) Body weight, fat mass, body mass index, and percent fat in the CON showed decreasing tendencies, whereas those in LIG, MIG, and HIG showed a noticeable decrease, which revealed that there were significant differences among the groups. Specifically, a higher impulse intensity resulted in a greater increase in muscle mass. (3) Although there was no interaction effect in the abdominal visceral fat area, there were significant interactions in the abdominal subcutaneous fat (ASF) and total fat (ATF) areas. Both the ASF and ATF in the CON showed decreasing tendencies, whereas those in other groups showed a noticeable decrease. The ANCOVA revealed that the ASF (p = 0.002) and ATF (p = 0.001) were significantly different among the groups. In particular, the higher the impulse intensity, the greater the decrease in abdominal fat. Conclusions: This study confirmed that high-impulse-intensity EMS can improve psychophysiological conditions. In other words, healthy young adults felt that the extent to which their body image, body shape, and self-esteem improved depended on how intense their EMS impulse intensities were. The results also showed that higher levels of impulse intensity led to improved physical conditions.

scholarly journals Effects Of Combinations Of Patternmaking Methods And Dress Forms On Garment Appearance

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chinami Fujii ◽  
Masayuki Takatera ◽  
KyoungOk Kim
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Evaluation ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Front Side ◽  
Calculation Methods ◽  
Ideal Body ◽  
Sensory Evaluations ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractWe investigated the effects of the combinations of patternmaking methods and dress forms on the appearance of a garment. Six upper garments were made using three patternmaking methods used in France, Italy, and Japan, and two dress forms made in Japan and France. The patterns and the appearances of the garments were compared using geometrical measurements. Sensory evaluations of the differences in garment appearance and fit on each dress form were also carried out. In the patterns, the positions of bust and waist darts were different. The waist dart length, bust dart length, and positions of the bust top were different depending on the patternmaking method, even when the same dress form was used. This was a result of differences in the measurements used and the calculation methods employed for other dimensions. This was because the ideal body shape was different for each patternmaking method. Even for garments produced for the same dress form, the appearances of the shoulder, bust, and waist from the front, side, and back views were different depending on the patternmaking method. As a result of the sensory evaluation, it was also found that the bust and waist shapes of the garments were different depending on the combination of patternmaking method and dress form. Therefore, to obtain a garment with better appearance, it is necessary to understand the effects of the combinations of patternmaking methods and body shapes.

scholarly journals Body Image Disturbances and Weight Bias After Obesity Surgery: Semantic and Visual Evaluation in a Controlled Study, Findings from the BodyTalk Project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Meneguzzo ◽  
Simone Claire Behrens ◽  
Angela Favaro ◽  
Elena Tenconi ◽  
Vincenzo Vindigni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Obesity Surgery ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Weight Bias ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Body Perception ◽  
Visual Evaluation ◽  
Overweight People ◽  
Body Image Disturbances ◽  
Body Shapes

Abstract Purpose Body image has a significant impact on the outcome of obesity surgery. This study aims to perform a semantic evaluation of body shapes in obesity surgery patients and a group of controls. Materials and Methods Thirty-four obesity surgery (OS) subjects, stable after weight loss (average 48.03 ± 18.60 kg), and 35 overweight/obese controls (MC), were enrolled in this study. Body dissatisfaction, self-esteem, and body perception were evaluated with self-reported tests, and semantic evaluation of body shapes was performed with three specific tasks constructed with realistic human body stimuli. Results The OS showed a more positive body image compared to HC (p < 0.001), higher levels of depression (p < 0.019), and lower self-esteem (p < 0.000). OS patients and HC showed no difference in weight bias, but OS used a higher BMI than HC in the visualization of positive adjectives (p = 0.011). Both groups showed a mental underestimation of their body shapes. Conclusion OS patients are more psychologically burdened and have more difficulties in judging their bodies than overweight/obese peers. Their mental body representations seem not to be linked to their own BMI. Our findings provide helpful insight for the design of specific interventions in body image in obese and overweight people, as well as in OS.

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