The media's representation of the ideal male body: A cause for muscle dysmorphia?

This research examined the media's representation of the ideal male body in two studies. The first study looked at Playgirl centerfolds to determine if the models had become more muscular over the magazine's 25-year history. It was found that the centerfolds had become more muscular over the years, suggesting an increasingly muscular cultural male body ideal. The second study examined the effects of exposing college men to advertisements that exploit this muscular body ideal. A control group viewed neutral advertisements while the experimental group viewed muscular men featured in advertisements. It was hypothesized that the experimental group would show generally lower body satisfaction, higher body consciousness, and a more dysphoric mood than the control group. In this study, the experimental group showed a greater discrepancy between their current and ideal body shape but this group did not demonstrate the other hypothesized associations. However, sexual orientation was found to be an important moderator variable of differences in body satisfaction.