想瘦身嗎?別看美女廣告！Study: Magazine ads of thin models make women overeat

Research now shows a supermodel figure or the "ideal" thin woman image reflected in magazine advertisements trigger young women, obsessed with their own body image, to eat more. Interestingly, those with a more balanced healthy body image tend to eat less.

The study done in Australia is important in bringing out the point that advertising not only affects the way we think but also our patterns of eating behavior.

Fiona Monro, graduate student at the University of New South Wales, explains the results of the study published in the November edition of the journal, Eating Behaviors: "We would expect people who value the way they look would be reminded by viewing the image and not eat."

"We're not sure why we found the reverse but possibly because of stress...[women obsessed with their appearance] see the idealized image and think about their own body so turn to food," she adds.

Monro says, "They might think 'what's the point, I'm never going to look like that, Imay as welleat; or the image makes them think they're thinner than they are so they eat more."

Sixty-eight female university students took part in the study: two hours after their last meal, they were asked to prioritize the importance of physical attractiveness, health and physical fitness to find out whether they give importance to the way their body looks.

Monro and her team were studying the phenomenon of "self-objectification," or the way people perceive themselves and their bodies as an object to be valued for outward show as opposed to intrinsic worth.

一項研究表明，為身材所困的年輕女性看到雜志廣告上的超級模特或是有著“魔鬼”身材的女性，會食量大增；有意思的是，身材勻稱的女性看到這樣的廣告后反而會吃得更少。

這項來自澳大利亞的研究得出一個重要結(jié)論，即廣告不僅會影響人們的思維方式，而且還會影響人們的飲食方式。

這項研究結(jié)果在《飲食行為》第十一期上發(fā)表。新南威爾士大學(xué)的研究生菲奧納·蒙羅解釋說：“我們原以為，為身材所困的女性看到廣告中的苗條女性后會減少食量。”

“可是不知道為什么得出的結(jié)論恰好相反，不過這可能是由于壓力所致。當(dāng)她們看到廣告中的苗條女性，可能會很受‘刺激’，所以就大吃特吃。”

蒙羅說，“她們可能會這樣想‘我永遠(yuǎn)也不可能有那么好的身材，還不如痛痛快快的吃’，或者是，她們看到這樣的廣告后會覺得自己變瘦了，所以就開始大吃。”

新南威爾士大學(xué)共有68名女大學(xué)生參加了此項研究。為了了解調(diào)查對象是否在乎自己的體型，研究人員讓她們在吃完飯的兩小時后，對外表、健康和身體舒適度三個因素按照重要性進(jìn)行排序。

目前，蒙羅和她研究小組的其他成員正在研究“自我客體化”這一現(xiàn)象，即人們將自己及自己的身體視為一個客體，來衡量其外在形象而非內(nèi)在價值。

Vocabulary:
may as well : 最好…；與其…倒不如…