Category: Mind & Brain

Women who are told men desire women with larger bodies are happier with their weight

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 12, 2015

Results of three independent studies suggest a woman’s body image is strongly linked to her perception of what she thinks men prefer

Telling women that men desire larger women who aren’t model-thin made the women feel better about their own weight in a series of new studies.

Results of the three independent studies suggest a woman’s body image is strongly linked to her perception of what she thinks men prefer, said lead researcher and social psychologist Andrea Meltzer, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

How women perceive men’s preferences influenced each woman’s body image independent of her actual body size and weight.

“On average, heterosexual women believe that heterosexual men desire ultra-thin women,” said Meltzer, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at SMU. “Consequently, this study suggests that interventions that alter women’s perception regarding men’s desires for ideal female body sizes may be effective at improving women’s body image.”

The findings could have significant implications for women’s health and well-being, Meltzer said.

Prior research has shown that women satisfied with their body and weight tend to eat healthier, exercise more, and have higher self-esteem. They also tend to avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as excessive dieting and eating disorders, and they suffer less from depression.

In contrast, other research has demonstrated that women unhappy with their body and weight have less sex, less sexual satisfaction, and less marital satisfaction.

“It is possible that women who are led to believe that men prefer women with bodies larger than the models depicted in the media may experience higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of depression,” Meltzer said.

A total of 448 women participated in the three studies, conducted by Meltzer and co-author James K. McNulty, Florida State University.

The authors note that prior research has shown that women who watch TV and read more fashion magazines are less satisfied with their weight and have a poor body image.

Meltzer and McNulty wanted to test whether a woman’s feelings about her own weight would be influenced if she viewed images of larger-bodied women when told they were judged attractive by men.

The authors reported their findings in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. The article, “Telling women that men desire women with bodies larger than the thin-ideal improves women’s body satisfaction,” has been published online ahead of print.

Women’s weight satisfaction improved after image manipulation exercise
In all three studies, female participants viewed images of female models with bodies larger than the thin-ideal wearing a variety of clothing, ranging from typical street clothes to bathing suits. In each image, the models’ heads were cropped so participants wouldn’t be influenced by facial attractiveness. The women in the images were cataloged by participants as ranging in U.S. clothing size from 8 to 10, which is slightly smaller than the average for American women, size 12-14, but larger than model-thin, typically size 2-4.

Each study also included one or more control groups. Some women were shown the images of large-bodied women, but without portraying them as attractive to men. Others were shown images of women who were ultra-thin and told that men preferred them. Still another group was shown both the larger-bodied and ultra-thin women and told that women felt the larger-bodied women were more attractive.

Women in all groups completed a self-report questionnaire designed to measure weight satisfaction.

In all three studies, women had higher levels of satisfaction with their own weight after viewing the images of the larger women who were portrayed as attractive to men, while statistically controlling their actual weight.

“Although the current studies demonstrated that telling women that men prefer women with body sizes larger than the thin-ideal can have immediate positive effects on women’s body image, it is unclear how long these effects may last,” Meltzer said. “Indeed, all studies assessed women’s weight satisfaction immediately after the manipulation. It would likely take repeated exposure to images of larger-bodied women ostensibly desired by men to strongly rival the patterns of reinforcement that are so pervasive in the media.”

All participants were heterosexual women and the majority identified as Caucasian. — Margaret Allen

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Tags Andrea L. Meltzer, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology

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CBS DFW 11: Too Much ‘Blue Light’ Hinders Sleep

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 16, 2014

The negative consequences of blue light are associated with people’s metabolic clock being offset from their brain clock.

CBS DFW Channel 11 reporter Doug Dunbar covered the blue light research of Brian Zoltowski, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Chemistry.

“As a society, we are using more technology, and there’s increasing evidence that artificial light has had a negative consequence on our health,” says Zoltowski, who was awarded $320,500 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to continue its research on the impact of blue light.

“Our study uses physical techniques and chemical approaches to probe an inherently biological problem,” Zoltowski said. “We want to understand the chemical basis for how organisms use light as an environmental cue to regulate growth and development.”

Dunbar’s piece featuring Zoltowski’s research and lab, “Too Much “Blue Light” Hinders Sleep,” was published online Dec. 12.

Watch the full coverage.

EXCERPT:

By Doug Dunbar
CBS DFW 11
Can’t get a good night’s sleep. You might be getting a little too much blue light.

What’s that? It’s a big issue the Federal government is asking researchers at SMU to study.

There’s a reason why it’s dark in this lab. It’s because they’re studying light.

They have the lights off so they can purify the proteins in the dark.

So that we can study the activation process when we first expose them to light. But not just any light. Blue light. The stuff in fluorescents, and devices like laptops and phones. But also daylight.

One of the negative consequences of blue light is associated with our metabolic clock being offset from our brain clock. That can lead to problems for diabetes, cancer, mood disorders.

[ …] But Zoltowski and his crew could potentially tackle problems much bigger than sleeping.

“If we understand how these proteins that respond to light work we can create new biotechnology.”

Maybe new ways to deliver drugs, or even targeted cancer treatments.

“We can shine light on a very specific spot and that can allow us to activate any biological event we want at that very precise location and time.”

Watch the full coverage.

Tags Brian D. Zoltowski, Dedman College, SMU Department of Chemistry

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KERA: The Bright Side And Dark Side Of Blue Light

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 9, 2014

“We’re introducing blue light into the environment and into our daily lives at times when we’re not supposed to see it – and that basically causes dysfunction in our biological processes.” — Brian Zoltowski

KERA Public Radio journalist Justin Martin explored the good and bad of blue light in our environment with Brian Zoltowski, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Chemistry.

Martin’s interview with Zoltowski, “The Bright Side And Dark Side Of Blue Light,” was published online Dec. 8.

Listen to the interview.

EXCERPT:

By Justin Martin
KERA
Light is necessary for life on earth, but scientists believe that too much of a certain wavelength can cause everything from crop diseases to changes in the migratory patterns of animals. SMU professor Brian Zoltowski is working to unravel the mystery of blue light in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Interview Highlights: Brian Zoltowski

… On what defines blue light:

“Blue light refers to a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has specific energy. Usually we define things by basically their wavelength of light. So typically blue light can be centered around 450 nanometers but can range … from about 425 nanometers to 475 nanometers.”

… On the origin of excess blue light:

“Blue light is very abundant in nature in general. That’s why organisms actually use that wavelength of light to drive their biological processes. But it turns out though that because it’s abundant in nature, we like to have it to be abundant in our products like our lights, our computers, our laptops and everything else. So we introduce a lot more foreign blue light into the environment compared to what should naturally be there.”

… On blue light’s effects in animals vs. plants:

“A lot of that is not known, which is one of the reasons we’re actually doing a lot of this research. What we do know is that blue is extremely important for basically growth and development of any organism you can conceive of. How that’s ultimately regulated and when there can be too much is a big question. The bigger question is when you get the blue light, nature is designed to use blue light as a signal as to what time of day it is. So when we’re introducing blue light into the environment or into our daily lives through computers and laptops, we’re introducing blue light at times of day like evening when we’re not supposed to see it – and that basically causes dysfunction in our biological processes.”

… On how blue light fosters fungal growth:

“There’s growing understanding that a lot of these fungal pathogens of plants – there are several that actually attack wine, which causes billions of dollars of crop loss each year. There are some that we’re interested in that also basically attack a lot of your grain crops — so you’re looking at wheat, alfalfa — that have very detrimental aspects to agriculture. Their ability to infect the plant is regulated by blue light.”

Listen to the interview.

Tags Brian D. Zoltowski, Dedman College, SMU Department of Chemistry

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Study: Contraception may change how happy women are with their husbands

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 2, 2014

The pill may be altering how attractive a woman finds a man, depending on whether he’s judged good looking

Choosing a partner while on the pill may affect a woman’s marital satisfaction, according to a new study from Florida State University and Southern Methodist University.

In fact, the pill may be altering how attractive a woman finds a man.

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers examined 118 newlywed couples for up to four years. The women were regularly surveyed with questions asking them about their level of satisfaction with the relationship and their use of contraceptives.

The results showed that women who were using hormonal contraceptives when they met their husband experienced a drop in marital satisfaction after they discontinued a hormone-based birth control. But, what’s interesting is how the change in their satisfaction related to their husbands’ facial attractiveness.

Women who stopped taking a hormonal contraceptive and became less satisfied with their marriage tended to have husbands who were judged as less attractive. The women who were more satisfied after stopping contraceptive use had husbands who were judged as good looking.

“Our study demonstrated that women’s hormonal contraceptive use interacted with their husbands’ facial attractiveness to predict their marital satisfaction,” said SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, a co-author on the study.

Specifically, women who met their relatively more attractive husbands while using hormonal contraceptives experienced a boost in marital satisfaction when they discontinued using those contraceptives, said Meltzer, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

In contrast, women who met their relatively less attractive husbands while using hormonal contraceptives experienced a decline in marital satisfaction when they discontinued using those contraceptives, she said.

Hormonal processes may be at work, said Michelle Russell, a doctoral candidate at Florida State and lead author on the study.

“Many forms of hormonal contraception weaken the hormonal processes that are associated with preferences for facial attractiveness,” Russell said. “Accordingly, women who begin their relationship while using hormonal contraceptives and then stop may begin to prioritize cues of their husbands’ genetic fitness, such as his facial attractiveness, more than when they were taking hormonal contraceptives. In other words, a partner’s attractiveness plays a stronger role in women’s satisfaction when they discontinue hormonal contraceptives.”

In contrast, beginning a hormonal contraceptive after marriage did not appear to have negative or positive impacts on a woman’s satisfaction, regardless of her husband’s looks.

In the United States, 17 percent of women ages 17 to 44 were on birth control pills in 2010, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Nearly 5 percent more used other hormonal contraception methods such as injections or a vaginal ring.

Psychology Professor James McNulty, who is Russell’s adviser and one of her co-authors, noted that it is important to understand that this is only one factor affecting satisfaction.

“The research provides some additional information regarding the potential influences of hormonal contraceptives on relationships, but it is too early to give any practical recommendations regarding women’s family planning decisions.” — Kathleen Haughney, Florida State University

The authors published their findings in the article “The Association Between Discontinuing Hormonal Contraceptives and Wives’ Marital Satisfaction Depends on Husbands’ Facial Attractiveness”.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

Tags Andrea L. Meltzer, Dedman College, SMU Department of Psychology

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Study funded by NIH is decoding blue light’s mysterious ability to alter body’s natural clock

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 1, 2014

Blue light from artificial lighting and electronic devices knocks circadian rhythms off-kilter, resulting in health problems, sleep, cancer development, mood disorders, drug addiction, crop disease and even confused migratory animals

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health is unraveling the mystery of how blue light from residential and commercial lighting, electronic devices and outdoor lights can throw off-kilter the natural body clock of humans, plants and animals, leading to disease.

Exposure to blue light is on the increase, says chemist Brian D. Zoltowski, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who leads the study, “Protein : Protein interaction networks in the circadian clock.”

At the right time of day, blue light is a good thing. It talks to our 24-hour circadian clock, telling our bodies, for example, when to wake up, eat and carry out specific metabolic functions.

In plants, blue light signals them to leaf out, grow, blossom and bloom. In animals, it aids migratory patterns, sleep and wake cycles, regulation of metabolism, as well as mood and the immune system.

But too much blue light — especially at the wrong time — throws biological signaling out of whack.

“As a society, we are using more technology, and there’s increasing evidence that artificial light has had a negative consequence on our health,” said Zoltowski, an assistant professor in SMU’s Department of Chemistry.

“Our study uses physical techniques and chemical approaches to probe an inherently biological problem,” he said. “We want to understand the chemical basis for how organisms use light as an environmental cue to regulate growth and development.”

Zoltowski’s lab was awarded $320,500 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to continue its research on the impact of blue light.

The lab studies a small flowering plant native to Europe and Asia, Arabidopsis thaliana. The flower is a popular model organism in plant biology and genetics, Zoltowski said.

Although signaling pathways differ in organisms such as Arabidopsis when compared to animals, the flower still serves an important research purpose. How the signaling networks are interconnected is similar in both animals and Arabidopsis. That allows researchers to use simpler genetic models to provide insight into how similar networks are controlled in more complicated species like humans.

Understanding the mechanism can lead to targeted drug treatments
In humans, the protein melanopsin absorbs blue light and sends signals to photoreceptor cells in our eyes. In plants and animals, the protein cryptochrome performs similar signaling.

Much is known already about the way blue light and other light wavelengths, such as red and UV light, trigger biological functions through proteins that interact with our circadian clock. But the exact mechanism in that chemical signaling process remains a mystery.

“Light is energy, and that energy can be absorbed by melanopsin proteins that act as a switch that basically activates everything downstream,” Zoltowski said.

Melanopsin is a little-understood photoreceptor protein with the singular job of measuring time of day.

When light enters the eye, melanopsin proteins within unique cells in the retina absorb the wavelength as a photon and convert it to energy. That activates cells found only in the eye — called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglian cells, of which there are only about 160 in our body. The cells signal the suprachiasmatic nucleus region of the brain.

“We keep a master clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus — it controls our circadian rhythms,” he said. “But we also have other time pieces in our body; think of them as watches, and they keep getting reset by the blue light that strikes the master clock, generating chemical signals.”

The switch activates many biological functions, including metabolism, sleep, cancer development, drug addiction and mood disorders, to name a few.

“There’s a very small molecule that absorbs the light, acting like a spring, pushing out the protein and changing its shape, sending the signal. We want to understand the energy absorption by the small molecule and what that does biologically.”

The answer can lead to new ways to target diabetes, sleep disorders and cancer development, for example.

“If we understand how all these pathways work,” he said, “we can design newer, better, more efficacious drugs to help people.”

Chemical signal from retina’s “atomic clock” synchronizes circadian rhythms
Besides increased reliance on artificial lighting indoors and outdoors, electronic devices also now contribute in a big way to blue light exposure. Endless evening hours on our smartphones and tablets with Candy Crush, Minecraft or Instagram don’t really help us relax and go to sleep. Just the opposite, in fact.

The blue glow those devices emit signals our circadian clock that it’s daytime, Zoltowski said. Red light, on the other hand, tells us to go to sleep.

Awareness of the problem has prompted lighting manufacturers to develop new lighting strategies and products that transition blue light to red light toward evening and at night, Zoltowski said.

Targeted solutions could neutralize destructive blight in staple crops
In plants, the researchers study how the absence of “true dark” in nature due to artificial light can reduce yields of farm crops and promote crop disease.

For example, fungal systems rely on blue light to proliferate, forming pathogens known as blight in crops resulting in leaves that look chewed on and reducing yields.

“We study fusarium and verticillium,” Zoltowski said. “They cause about $3 billion worth of crop damage a year to wheat, corn, soybeans — the staple food crops.”

Understanding their ability to infect crops would allow scientists to potentially design small molecules that target and disrupt the fungal system’s circadian clock and neutralize their proliferation.

Research to understand how light and clock regulation are coupled
In animals, Zoltowski’s lab studies the blue light pathway that signals direction to birds and other animals that migrate. Blue light activates the protein that allows various species to measure the earth’s magnetic field for directionality. For example, Monarch butterflies rely on the cryptochrome photoreceptor for their annual migration to Mexico.

“We’re interested in how these pathways are regulated in a diverse range of organisms to understand how we can manipulate these pathways to our advantage,” he said, “for health consequences and to improve agriculture yields.”

The researchers will map the reaction trajectory beginning from the initial absorption of the photon to the point it alters an organism’s physiology.

Zoltowski notes that light is just one of a handful of external cues from our environment that trigger biological processes regulating the circadian clock. Others include temperature changes, feeding and metabolites.

Besides the NIH grant, the lab operates with $250,000 from the American Chemical Society’s Herman Frasch Foundation for Chemical Research Grants in Agricultural Chemistry. — Margaret Allen

Tags Brian D. Zoltowski, Dedman College, SMU Department of Chemistry