Tag: Andrea L. Meltzer

Daily Mail: Fretting over your weight? You may be ready for a baby

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date June 3, 2015

Women worry most when their chances of conception are highest; fears about appearing attractive at ovulation ‘drive women to eat less

London’s Daily Mail newspaper reported on the research of SMU social psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was lead author on three independent studies that found biology isn’t the only reason women eat less as they near ovulation, a time when they are at their peak fertility.

The studies found that another part of the equation is a woman’s desire to maintain her body’s attractiveness, says Meltzer.

Women nearing ovulation who also reported an increase in their motivation to manage their body attractiveness reported eating fewer calories out of a desire to lose weight, said Meltzer, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

The article, “Fretting over your weight? You may be ready for a baby: Women worry most when their chances of conception are highest,” published June 2, 2015.

EXCERPT:

By Sophie Freeman
London Daily Mail
A woman being off her food could be a sign she is hungry for motherhood instead.

A study has found that women worry most about their weight when their chances of conception are highest.

Fears about appearing attractive at ovulation – as opposed to at other times in the month – drive them to eat less, according to the researchers.

The US study ties in with previous research that has found numerous subtle changes in female behaviour when fertility is high.

At this point in the month, a woman is more likely to dress fashionably, wear revealing clothing and have a roving eye.

Even something about the way a woman walks changes, with men finding her gait more
appealing when her odds of pregnancy are good.

These changes were thought to be driven by biology but the latest study suggests that some women are consciously making an effort to appear more attractive at certain times of the month.

In the first of three experiments, 22 young women were asked when their fertility was high, and again when it was low, how much weight they would like to lose.

The figure was bigger when they were fertile, the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reports. A second study looked at a larger number of women, including some who were on the Pill.

Read the full article, “Fretting over your weight? You may be ready for a baby: Women worry most when their chances of conception are highest.”

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain

At peak fertility, women who desire to maintain body attractiveness report they eat less

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date June 1, 2015

Three independent studies find women near peak fertility who desire to maintain body attractiveness are motivated to eat less — unlike women who are not near ovulation, using hormonal birth control, or not motivated to maintain body attractiveness

Biology isn’t the only reason women eat less as they near ovulation, a time when they are at their peak fertility.

Three new independent studies found that another part of the equation is a woman’s desire to maintain her body’s attractiveness, says social psychologist and assistant professor Andrea L. Meltzer, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

When women were not near peak fertility — regardless of whether they were motivated to manage their body attractiveness, near peak fertility but not motivated to manage their body attractiveness, or using hormonal birth control, they were less likely to want to lose weight and didn’t reduce their calories, Meltzer said.

“These findings may help reconcile prior inconsistencies regarding the implications of ovulatory processes,” said Meltzer. “The desire to manage body attractiveness was a motivational factor for desired weight loss when women are nearing ovulation.”

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

The findings are published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology. The article, “A psychophysiological mechanism underlying women’s weight-management goals: Women desire and strive for greater weight loss near peak fertility,” is published online in advance of print at http://bit.ly/1K9Utwn.

The authors note that their study adds to a growing body of ovulation research, particularly as it relates to women’s health and weight management.

Previous studies in the field have found that women, and many non-human mammals, consume fewer calories near peak fertility.

They’ve also found that ovulation shifts a woman’s goals to attract a partner, motivating her to enhance her appearance to compete for men.

The authors note, however, that studies by other researchers attribute those ovulatory shifts in eating behavior solely to physiological factors related to an interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system.

But Meltzer and her colleagues say the new findings suggest an additional reason, one that is related to cultural norms and influences that dictate one way women may enhance their attractiveness is by managing their weight: Ovulating women may be motivated to lose weight and eat less if they are also motivated to improve their body attractiveness.

“Indeed, in our research we saw that shifting levels of hormones interacted with women’s desires to manage their body attractiveness, which predicted an important behavior — eating less,” Meltzer said. “These findings illustrate that broader social norms that dictate that thin women are more attractive can play a role, in addition to physiological factors.”

Meltzer’s co-authors on the study are James K. McNulty, Florida State University, Saul L. Miller, University of Kentucky, and Levi R. Baker, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Findings are confirmed across three independent studies
The three independent studies involved three different groups of women.

The first study followed 22 heterosexual women who were not using hormonal contraceptives and found they desired greater weight loss when they were closer to ovulation than when they were not.

The second study followed 92 heterosexual women, some who were using and some who were not using hormonal contraceptives. Its findings replicated the findings of the first study: Women who were not using hormonal contraceptives near peak fertility reported wanting to weigh less. In contrast, women in the study using hormonal contraceptives — which act on the endocrine system to disrupt the menstrual cycle and prevent pregnancy by altering hormonal fluctuations — didn’t demonstrate a desire to lose weight.

A third study followed 89 married women and found that those who were not using hormonal birth control were the ones most motivated to restrict eating during peak fertility, but only when they were more motivated to maintain their body attractiveness.

“Not only did the primary effect replicate across three independent studies,” the authors said, “it emerged in two samples of undergraduate women from different universities and a sample of married women and did not vary across participants’ weight using two samples of women who had a normal weight on average and one sample of women who were overweight on average.” — Margaret Allen

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

Daily News: Women’s body image tied to what they think men like: study

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 15, 2015

Study found that heterosexual women who were told males preferred females with fuller figures felt better about their weight.

New York’s Daily News newspaper reported on the research of SMU social psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was lead author on a new series of studies that found that telling women that men desire larger women who aren’t model-thin made the women feel better about their own weight.

Results of the three independent studies suggest a woman’s body image is strongly linked to her perception of what she thinks men prefer. The researchers found that 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,” says Meltzer.

The article, “Women’s body image tied to what they think men like: study,” was published Jan. 15.

Meltzer is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

AFP RelaxNews
When told that men desire full-bodied, voluptuous figures, women felt better about their own weight, say researchers at Southern Methodist University in Texas.

“A woman’s body image is strongly linked to her perception of what she thinks men prefer,” says lead author and social psychologist Andrea Meltzer of SMU.

Heterosexual women, says Meltzer, tend to believe that men prefer the dieted-down, ultra-thin bodies that dominate the media.

“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,” she says.

This would be an important step for women’s health and well-being because prior research has shown that women with a positive image of their physique tend to eat healthier, exercise more and have a superior overall self-image.

On the flipside, those who are unhappy with their body 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,” says Meltzer.

Read the full story.

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Huffington Post: Women’s Body Image Relies On Men’s Opinion, Study Finds

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 15, 2015

Prior research has shown that women with a positive image of their physique tend to eat healthier, exercise more and have a superior overall self-image.

The popular news site Huffington Post reported on the research of SMU social psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was lead author on a new series of studies that found that telling women that men desire larger women who aren’t model-thin made the women feel better about their own weight.

The article, “Women’s Body Image Relies On Men’s Opinion, Study Finds,” was published Jan. 15.

Meltzer is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

AFP/Relaxnews
When told that men desire full-bodied, voluptuous figures, women felt better about their own weight, say researchers at Southern Methodist University in the US.

“A woman’s body image is strongly linked to her perception of what she thinks men prefer,” says lead author and social psychologist Andrea Meltzer of SMU.

Heterosexual women, says Meltzer, tend to believe that men prefer the dieted-down, ultra-thin bodies that dominate the media.

“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,” she says.

This would be an important step for women’s health and well-being because prior research has shown that women with a positive image of their physique tend to eat healthier, exercise more and have a superior overall self-image.

On the flipside, those who are unhappy with their body 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,” says Meltzer.

Read the full story.

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U.S. News: When Women Think Men Prefer Bigger Gals, They’re Happier With Their Weight

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 15, 2015

prior studies have suggested that women who are happy with their bodies tend to eat better, be more active, have more self-esteem, are less prone to depression, and shun eating disorders and excessive dieting.

HealthDay writer Robert Preidt reported on the research of SMU social psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer for the news site U.S. News & World Report. Meltzer was lead author on a new series of studies that found that telling women that men desire larger women who aren’t model-thin made the women feel better about their own weight.

The article, “When Women Think Men Prefer Bigger Gals, They’re Happier With Their Weight,” was published Jan. 15.

Meltzer is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Robert Preidt
HealthDay
When it comes to how satisfied they are with their own bodies, notions women hold of what men look for in females may be key, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas found that women are happier with their weight if they believe that men prefer full-bodied women instead of those who are model-thin.

“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,” lead researcher Andrea Meltzer, a social psychologist at Southern Methodist, said in a university news release.

The study included almost 450 women, the majority of whom were white, who were shown images of women who were either ultra-thin or larger-bodied.

Some women were also told by the researchers that men who had viewed the pictures had tended to prefer the thinner women, while others were told that men had preferred the larger women.

Both groups of women then completed a questionnaire meant to assess how they felt about their weight.

The result: women who were told that men prefer larger-bodied women were more satisfied with their own weight.

Read the full story.

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The Atlantic: Women’s Self-Esteem and What Men Want

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 15, 2015

In a new study, female participants felt better about their bodies when told that men are attracted to plus-sized models.

Writer Julie Beck at the popular news site The Atlantic reported on the research of SMU social psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was lead author on a new series of studies that found that telling women that men desire larger women who aren’t model-thin made the women feel better about their own weight.

The article, “Women’s Self-Esteem and What Men Want,” was published Jan. 14.

Meltzer is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Julie Beck
The Atlantic
Last summer, Meghan Trainor’s doo-woppy single “All About That Bass” was seen by a lot of people as a body-positive empowerment anthem, with its condemnation of magazine Photoshop, and accompanying video of people of all sizes dancing in front of pastel backgrounds. But other people took issue with some of the lyrics — “I’ve got that boom boom that all the boys chase,” or “boys like a little more booty to hold at night.” Writers at Jezebel, Slate, and other publications accused the song of implying that self-esteem comes from male acceptance, that of course women shouldn’t worry about their size, because men still like them.

“Loving yourself because dudes like what you’ve got going on is a pretty flimsy form of self-acceptance,” Chloe Angyal wrote at Feministing. “In fact, it’s not really self-acceptance at all if it depends on other people thinking you’re hot.”

Trainor’s message might not be a perfect one, but new research shows it is effective. A recent study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that telling women men were attracted to non-stick-thin models increased their body satisfaction.

The researchers, from Southern Methodist University and Florida State University, had undergraduate heterosexual women look at images of plus-sized models (“plus-sized” in model terms—the models in the photos were estimated to be between a size 8 and 10, or “representative of the average female undergraduate,” the study says). In some cases, the width of the pictures was reduced by 30 percent, “to depict the thin-ideal.”

The women were either told that men picked the images because they found them attractive, or just that the images were taken from the media. In one experiment, another control group was told that men prefer thin women.

The participants reported higher satisfaction with their weight when they were told men were attracted to the average-sized models. But body satisfaction when women were told nothing was the same as when they were told men are attracted to ultra-thin women. This didn’t surprise the researchers, though.

Read the full story.

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine 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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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”.

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New York Daily News: Newlyweds’ gut feelings on their marriage are correct — study

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 5, 2013

Real clue to whether a marriage is happy isn’t found in what you say about your spouse, but in gut instincts, study demonstrates

The New York Daily news reports on the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was co-author on a four-year longitudinal study of 135 newlywed couples that found that a spouse’s implicit feelings about their partner predicted marital satisfaction later.

The article, “Newlyweds’ gut feelings on their marriage are correct: study,” was published Dec. 2.

Meltzer, co-author on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the article.

EXCERPT:

New York Daily News
A new study finds that newlyweds know on a subconscious level whether their marriage will be a happy one or not, and that when it comes to tying the knot, listen to your gut instincts.

Florida State University scientists recruited 135 heterosexual couples who had been married for less than six months and then followed up with them every six months over a four-year period.

They found that the feelings the study participants verbalized about their marriages were unrelated to changes in their marital happiness over time. Instead, it was the gut-level negative evaluations of their partners that they unknowingly revealed during a baseline experiment that predicted future happiness, the researchers said.

The study was published November 29 issue of the journal Science.

“Everyone wants to be in a good marriage,” said head researcher James K. McNulty. “And in the beginning, many people are able to convince themselves of that at a conscious level. But these automatic, gut-level responses are less influenced by what people want to think. You can’t make yourself have a positive response through a lot of wishful thinking.”

To conduct the experiment, the researchers asked subjects to report their relationship satisfaction and the severity of their specific relationship problems. Subjects also were asked to provide their conscious evaluations by describing their marriage according to 15 pairs of opposing adjectives, such as “good” or “bad,” “satisfied” or “unsatisfied.”

Most interesting to the researchers, though, were the findings regarding another measure designed to test their automatic attitudes, or gut-level responses. The experiment involved flashing a photo of the study participant’s spouse on a computer screen for just one-third of a second followed by a positive word like “awesome” or “terrific” or a negative word like “awful” or “terrible.” The individuals simply had to press a key on the keyboard to indicate whether the word was positive or negative.

Read the article.

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Washington Post: Psychology study — Wedded bliss and gut feelings sometimes conflict

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 5, 2013

Data for the study was gathered from 135 newlywed couples recruited within the first six months of marriage, completing measures of their attitudes

Journalist Meeri Kim reports in The Washington Post about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was co-author on a four-year longitudinal study of 135 newlywed couples that found that a spouse’s implicit feelings about their partner predicted marital satisfaction later.

The article, “Psychology study: Wedded bliss and gut feelings sometimes conflict,” was published Nov. 28.

Meltzer, co-author on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the article.

EXCERPT:

By Meeri Kim
The Washington Post
The harbinger of an unhappy marriage may be your gut.

A new study by psychologists found that newlyweds had underlying positive or negative gut feelings about their spouses that many were unaware of and that predicted marital satisfaction years later.

The experiment used a photo of the newlywed spouse and a series of positive and negative words to elicit a so-called automatic attitude.

“Either people are completely unaware of this automatic attitude, or they’re completely aware and just not willing to talk about it,” said psychologist and study author James McNulty of Florida State University. The study was published online Thursday in the journal Science.

Automatic attitudes are unfiltered, knee-jerk reactions that can sometimes oppose the conscious thoughts.

McNulty, who primarily conducts research on romantic relationships, showed a newlywed the photo of his or her spouse for just a third of a second, followed by a word that was positive or negative: “delightful” or “disgusting,” for instance. The newlywed, as fast as possible, had to push a button indicating the word that was good or bad.

Psychologists say that seeing the photo for just long enough to recognize who you’re looking at, but not enough to study the detail of the picture, causes your brain to automatically retrieve from memory any associations you have. This facilitates a speedier response to any words that match those associations.

Read the article.

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The Independent: The key to marital bliss? Use your gut instinct

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 5, 2013

Data for the study was gathered from 135 newlywed couples recruited within the first six months of marriage, completing measures of their attitudes

Journalist Steve Connor reports in The Independent about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who was co-author on a four-year longitudinal study of 135 newlywed couples that found that a spouse’s implicit feelings about their partner predicted marital satisfaction later.

The article, “The key to marital bliss? Use your gut instinct,” was published Nov. 28.

Meltzer, co-author on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Read the article.

EXCERPT:

By Steve Connor
The Independent
Oscar Wilde once said that marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Now scientists have shown that the best advice for people contemplating matrimony is to put their gut instinct ahead of wishful thinking.

A study of 135 newly-wed couples who were followed over a four-year period found that what people say about their partner is not always what they think deep down – but it is this gut reaction that matters for future marital happiness.

The optimism shown by all the couples at the outset of their marriage generally declined over time but the level of growing dissatisfaction with their spouse was directly related to the inner-most feelings at the outset – which they actively suppressed, the scientists found.

Those who harboured the most negative gut reaction to their partners after six months of marriage were also the ones who felt the most dissatisfied and unhappy after four years of marriage, according to Professor James McNulty of Florida State University in Tallahassee, who led the study published in the journal Science.

“Everyone wants to be in a good marriage and in the beginning many people are able to convince themselves of that at a conscious level,” Professor McNulty said.

“But these automatic, gut-level responses are less influenced by what people want to think. You can’t make yourself have a positive response through a lot of wishful thinking,” he said.

Measuring gut feelings was not straightforward and the researchers used an established psychological technique for determining someone’s subconscious thoughts by measuring the time it took for them to react to photographs of a spouse.

The experiment involved flashing a photograph of someone’s partner on a computer screen for just one third of a second, followed by a positive word such as “awesome” or “terrific” or a negative word such as “awful” or “terrible.

Read the article.

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Culture, Society & Family Mind & Brain

Gut reaction of marital partners could foretell their marriage satisfaction

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 3, 2013

Data for the study was gathered from 135 newlywed couples recruited within the first six months of marriage, completing measures of their attitudes

Unconscious gut reactions may predict happy, and not-so-happy, marriages, a new study suggests.

Results of research published Nov. 29 found that spouses’ implicit attitudes toward their partners predicted changes in their marital satisfaction over four years. The study was published in the scholarly journal Science, “Though they may be unaware, newlyweds implicitly know whether their marriage will be satisfying.”

Data for the study was gathered from 135 newlywed couples, who were recruited within the first six months of marriage and completed measures of implicit attitudes toward their partners and explicit attitudes toward their relationship.

Researchers flashed the faces of participants’ spouses and asked the newlyweds to quickly, and unconsciously, determine if words such as awesome or horrible were positive or negative.

Individuals who responded the quickest to positive words after seeing a picture of their spouse were happier over the 4-year-study period.

Conscious attitudes were not accurate predictors of happiness
Questionnaires asking about couples’ conscious attitudes were not accurate predictors of the happiness of the pairs, but people’s automatic responses could foretell the course of the couple’s relationship, the researchers found.

Andrea L. Meltzer, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology, is one of four co-authors on the study on newlywed marital satisfaction.

The study, one of the first to apply implicit attitudes to relationships, found that spouses’ implicit attitudes toward their partners predicted changes in their marital satisfaction over four years.

Spouse was exposed to partner’s image, then responded to positive, negative words
To measure their implicit attitudes, spouses were briefly exposed to an image of their partner and then asked to indicate as quickly as possible whether a word was either positive (e.g., “wonderful”) or negative (e.g., “horrible”). The difference between the time it took them to respond to the positive and negative words was an index of their implicit satisfaction. Spouses who responded quicker to the positive words and slower to the negative words indicated higher satisfaction with their partner.

To measure their explicit attitudes, couples reported the extent to which various adjectives described their marriage. Following this initial assessment, couples reported their marital satisfaction every six months for four years.

The study found that newlyweds’ automatic, implicit attitudes were an accurate indicator of changes in marital satisfaction across the first four years of marriage whereas their explicit attitudes were not an indicator of changes in marital satisfaction. Consistent with other studies of newlywed couples, this study found that marital satisfaction decreased over time.

Findings demonstrate implicit positive attitudes predict less decline in satisfaction
But the findings demonstrated that those partners with more positive implicit attitudes toward their spouse experienced less-steep declines in marital satisfaction across the four-year course of the study.

Notably, many factors predict marital satisfaction; this study covers just one component. Therefore, it likely would not be ideal to use implicit attitudes as a compatibility indicator or as a way to predict a long and happy marriage, the researchers cautioned. — SMU, Science

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Business Times: Love And Marriage — Wife’s Attractiveness Essential, Study Says

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date November 21, 2013

Journalist Roxanne Palmer reports in the International Business Times about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found in a four-year longitudinal study of 450 newlywed couples that men with physically attractive wives remained much more satisfied in their marriage than men without physically attractive wives.

The article, “Love And Marriage: Wife’s Attractiveness Essential, Study Says,” was published Nov. 20.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

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By Roxanne Palmer
International Business Times
Men place a higher value on the attractiveness of their life partners than women, one group of psychologists says.

Southern Methodist University psychologist Andrea Meltzer and colleagues drew on four different studies with a pool of more than 450 newlywed heterosexual couples. At the start of the studies, independent researchers scored the attractiveness of the husband and wife in each pair. Experimenters then interviewed the newlyweds and followed up later, asking them to rate their marital satisfaction on eight separate occasions over the next four years.

“Whereas husbands were more satisfied at the beginning of the marriage and remained more satisfied over the next four years to the extent that they had an attractive wife, wives were no more or less satisfied initially or over the next four years to the extent that they had an attractive husband,” Meltzer and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

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CBS Houston: Study: Men With Attractive Wives More Satisfied In Marriage

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date November 21, 2013

Journalist Benjamin Fearnow reports on CBS Houston about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found in a four-year longitudinal study of 450 newlywed couples that men with physically attractive wives remained much more satisfied in their marriage than men without physically attractive wives.

The article, “Study: Men With Attractive Wives More Satisfied In Marriage,” was published Nov. 20.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

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By Benjamin Fearnow
CBS Houston
The physical attractiveness of one’s spouse plays a major role in marital satisfaction for men, while women’s happiness in their marriage was not affected by their husband’s looks.

A study of more than 450 newlywed couples over the course of four years found that men with physically attractive wives remained much more satisfied in their marriage than men who did not. However, the attractiveness of a woman’s husband played no part in the satisfaction that women felt from their marriage.

The study, recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, first rated each member of the couples by “objective,” independent researchers, and then asked up to eight times over the first four years of marriage to rate their satisfaction.

The study strengthened support that there is a gender gap for how much physical attractiveness corresponds to (self-reported) marriage happiness.

Husbands with attractive wives in all four independent, longitudinal studies analyzed were more satisfied than their wives at the beginning of each marriage. As the marriage progressed, the husbands with the attractive wives remained more satisfied, and the attractive wives in these couples also reported being more satisfied.

“Whereas husbands were more satisfied at the beginning of the marriage and remained more satisfied over the next 4 years to the extent that they had an attractive wife, wives were no more or less satisfied initially or over the next 4 years to the extent that they had an attractive husband,” wrote researcher Andrea Meltzer, of Southern Methodist University’s Dedman College of Humanities & Sciences.

“Most importantly, a direct test indicated that partner physical attractiveness played a larger role in predicting husbands’ satisfaction than predicting wives’ satisfaction,” reported the researchers.

The researchers attributed this to the concept that the self-reported happier husbands led to a happier marriage as a whole.

Read the article.

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UPI: Husbands with hot wife more satisfied, wives not so much

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date November 20, 2013

UPI wire service reported about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found in a four-year longitudinal study of 450 newlywed couples that men with physically attractive wives remained much more satisfied in their marriage than men without physically attractive wives.

The article, “Husbands with hot wife more satisfied, wives not so much,” was published Nov. 20.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

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UPI
A direct test indicated a partner’s physical attractiveness played a larger role in predicting husbands’ satisfaction than wives’, U.S. researchers say.

Andrea L. Meltzer of Southern Methodist University in Dallas and colleagues analyzed the data of four independent, longitudinal studies to examine sex differences in the implications of partner physical attractiveness and marital satisfaction.

In all four studies, both partners’ physical attractiveness was objectively rated at baseline, and both partners reported their marital satisfaction up to eight times over the first four years of marriage.

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found husbands were more satisfied at the beginning of the marriage and remained more satisfied over the next four years to the extent that they had an attractive wife, while wives were no more or less satisfied initially or over the next four years to the extent that they had an attractive husband.

Read the article.

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Daily Mail: Love? Trust? No, a GOOD-LOOKING wife makes for a happy marriage (according to men, at least…)

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date November 20, 2013

Journalist Victoria Woollaston reports in London’s Daily Mail about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found in a four-year longitudinal study of 450 newlywed couples that men with physically attractive wives remained much more satisfied in their marriage than men without physically attractive wives.

The article, “Love? Trust? No, a GOOD-LOOKING wife makes for a happy marriage (according to men, at least…),” was published Nov. 20.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

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By Victoria Woollaston
Daily Mail
It appears that for men, the key to a long and happy marriage has less to do with compatible personalities and similar interests and more about how attractive the women they are married to is.

A researcher from Texas has discovered that men with attractive wives have happier marriages and this marital satisfaction remains over time.

Yet the same can’t be said for women. According to the study, the attractiveness of a husband played no part in how happy or satisfied a wife said they were.

Psychologist Andrea Meltzer from the Southern Methodist University Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences polled more than 450 newlywed couples over a four-year period.

This involved four different studies with four different groups of newlyweds.

Before the studies, each couple member was rated for attractiveness by an objective and independent team of researchers.

Over the four years, each husband and wife were separately asked on up to eight occasions to rate how satisfied they were in their respective marriages.

Husbands across all four studies were more satisfied than their wives at the beginning of each marriage.

Over time, husbands with wives that had been rated as attractive remained more satisfied than their spouses.

The attractive wives in these marriages were also, on average, more satisfied and the researchers attributed this to the fact having a happier husband led to a happier marriage overall.

Read the article.

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Vancouver Sun: Does this happy marriage make me look fat?

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 5, 2013

Postmedia News reporter Misty Harris writes in The Vancouver Sun about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found that young couples who are satisfied with their marriage are more likely to gain weight, putting them at risk for various health problems associated with being overweight.

The article, “Does this happy marriage make me look fat?,” was published April 5.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

The study’s researchers said the findings challenge the long-held notion that quality relationships are always beneficial to one’s health. Instead, they said, the findings suggest that spouses who are satisfied in the marriage are less motivated to attract an alternative mate. As a result, satisfied spouses relax efforts to maintain their weight.

The article, “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage,” is published online in the scientific journal Health Psychology at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23477578.

The study was based on data from 169 first-married newlywed couples whose marital satisfaction and weight were tracked over the course of four years.

Read the Vancouver Sun article.

EXCERPT:

Misty Harris
Vancouver Sun
Marital bliss may bulk up your well-being but it also tips the scales when it comes to weight, according to a new four-year study.

Reporting in the journal Health Psychology, researchers find that relationship satisfaction is linked with an increase in body mass index over time. By contrast, when couples are less satisfied in their marriage, or even contemplating separation, they’re significantly less likely to incur the weight penalty of their happier counterparts.

“It’s pretty well-established that marriage is associated with weight gain, and divorce is associated with weight loss,” said Andrea Meltzer, assistant professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University in Texas. “But the extent to which satisfaction plays a role hasn’t been examined until now.”

The outcome of the study was uncertain from the start.

Prior research has found that satisfying relationships are actually helpful in promoting good health practices. But Meltzer notes that those studies focused more on behaviours – such as taking medication on time or getting an annual physical – than weight.

Literature on mating, meanwhile, has shown that weight-maintenance is motivated primarily by a desire to attract a partner. From this perspective, it makes sense that keeping svelte could be a function of dissatisfaction, and a desire to get back on the market.

Read the Vancouver Sun article.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

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

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Researcher news SMU In The News

The Telegraph: Getting married makes you fat, say scientists

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 5, 2013

Health reporter Laura Donnelly writes in London’s Telegraph about the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found that young couples who are satisfied with their marriage are more likely to gain weight, putting them at risk for various health problems associated with being overweight.

The article, “Getting married makes you fat, say scientists,” was published April 5.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

The article, “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage,” is published online in the scientific journal Health Psychology at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23477578.

The study was based on data from 169 first-married newlywed couples whose marital satisfaction and weight were tracked over the course of four years.

Read The Telegraph article.

EXCERPT:

Laura Donnelly
The Telegraph
Couples in happy marriages are likely to pile on the pounds, a study claims.

The research involving more than 160 newly-wed couples found that the more content they were in their relationship, the more weight they gained.

Over four years, couples were regularly asked to rate their satisfaction with their marriage on a scale, while their weight and height were measured.

The study found that for each unit rise in satisfaction, on average, men and women gained one tenth of a BMI unit every six months — the equivalent of a pound a year for a woman who is 5ft 4 ins tall and weighs 8½ stone.

Researchers suggested that those who were happy with their partners might be less likely to worry about their figures, because they were not motivated to look elsewhere for love.

Dr Andrea Meltzer, of the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, said: “On average, spouses who were more satisfied with their marriage were less likely to consider leaving their marriage, and they gained more weight.

Read The Telegraph article.

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Daily News: Does marriage make you fat? Happy newlyweds more likely to gain weight

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 5, 2013

The New York Daily News covered the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found that young couples who are satisfied with their marriage are more likely to gain weight, putting them at risk for various health problems associated with being overweight.

The article, “Does marriage make you fat? Happy newlyweds more likely to gain weight in first years of marriage,” was published April 5.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

The article, “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage,” is published online in the scientific journal Health Psychology at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23477578.

The study was based on data from 169 first-married newlywed couples whose marital satisfaction and weight were tracked over the course of four years.

Read the Daily News article.

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New York Daily News
Newly married couples who remained happy after they tied the knot were more likely to pack on pounds early in their marriage than couples who were less satisfied, a Southern Methodist University study found.

Happy, young newlyweds are more likely to put on weight in the early years after they exchange vows, a new study finds.
Researchers from Southern Methodist University tracked 169 first-time newlywed couples, keeping tabs on their marital satisfaction and weight over the course of four years. Newlyweds checked in with the researchers twice a year, answering questions on their satisfaction with their marriage and taking measurements on their weight, height, and body-mass index.

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Mail Online: Happy marriage can be heavy going — smitten newlyweds pile on pounds

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 5, 2013

London’s Daily Mail newspaper covered the research of SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, who found that young couples who are satisfied with their marriage are more likely to gain weight, putting them at risk for various health problems associated with being overweight.

The article, “Why a happy marriage can be heavy going: Smitten newlyweds more likely to pile on the pounds,” was published April 4.

Meltzer, lead researcher on the study, is an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

The article, “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage,” is published online in the scientific journal Health Psychology at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23477578.

The study was based on data from 169 first-married newlywed couples whose marital satisfaction and weight were tracked over the course of four years.

Read the Mail article.

EXCERPT:

Mail Online
A happy marriage can lead to a couple putting on weight, according to a study.
Contented newlyweds are more likely to put on the pounds due to being less motivated to attract an alternative mate, say US researchers who tracked the marital satisfaction and weight of 169 couples over four years.

Psychologist Andrea L Meltzer, who led the study, said: ‘On average, spouses who were more satisfied with their marriage were less likely to consider leaving their marriage, and they gained more weight over time.

‘In contrast, couples who were less satisfied in their relationship tended to gain less weight over time.’
The researchers, from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, said the findings challenged the standard belief that quality relationships were beneficial to health.

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Study finds that newlyweds who are satisfied with marriage are more likely to gain weight

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 3, 2013

Findings challenge notion that quality relationships always benefit health, indicating that satisfied spouses gain weight over time because they may be less motivated to attract an alternative mate

On average, young newlyweds who are satisfied with their marriage gain weight in the early years after they exchange vows, putting them at increased risk for various health problems related to being overweight.

That is the finding of a new study on marital satisfaction and weight gain, according to psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, lead researcher and an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

“On average, spouses who were more satisfied with their marriage were less likely to consider leaving their marriage, and they gained more weight over time,” Meltzer said. “In contrast, couples who were less satisfied in their relationship tended to gain less weight over time.”

SMU, Project Support, Department of Psychology

Mark Chancey, SMU, Study uncovered bias, factual errors and insufficient curriculum standards in most Texas public school Bible courses

The article, “Marital satisfaction predicts weight gain in early marriage,” is published online in the scientific journal Health Psychology at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23477578.

The study was based on data from 169 first-married newlywed couples whose marital satisfaction and weight were tracked over the course of four years.

Marriage associated with weight gain; divorce associated with weight loss
Previous psychological research has established that marriage is associated with weight gain and that divorce is associated with weight loss. But the role of marital satisfaction in those changes in weight is less clear, Meltzer said.

Previous research also has demonstrated that marital satisfaction is associated with health maintenance behaviors, she said.

“For example, studies have found that satisfied couples are more likely to take medications on time and schedule annual physicals,” Meltzer said. “Yet the role of marital satisfaction and actual health is less clear.”

Meltzer set out to examine the association between marital satisfaction and changes in weight over time.

For four years, the newlyweds reported twice a year on their marital satisfaction and steps toward divorce. They also reported their height and weight, which was used to calculate their body mass indices.

Focus on maintaining weight is more about appearance than health?
Spouses who were less happy in their marriage were more likely to consider leaving their partner, Meltzer said, and on average gained less weight over time.

“So these findings suggest that people perhaps are thinking about their weight in terms of appearance rather than health,” she said.

The study suggests young couples should be educated and encouraged to think about their weight as a factor of maintaining their health.

“We know that weight gain can be associated with a variety of negative health consequences, for example diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” Meltzer said. “By focusing more on weight in terms of health implications as opposed to appearance implications, satisfied couples may be able to avoid potentially unhealthy weight gain over time in their marriages.”

Besides Meltzer, co-authors are James K. McNulty, Florida State University; Sara A. Novak, Hofstra University; Emily A. Butler, University of Arizona; and Benjamin R. Karney, University of California, Los Angeles.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health; the Fetzer Institute; and the National Institute of Child Health and Development. — Margaret Allen

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

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Findings challenge notion that quality relationships always benefit health, indicating that satisfied spouses gain weight over time because they may be less motivated to attract an alternative mate

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