In Western culture, thinness is often portrayed as an ideal of beauty, and this idealization, taken to the extreme, can cause major disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Now a study published in the journalInternational Journal of Eating Disorders, reveals that genetics determines that some women are more susceptible than others to social pressure for being thin.
“We are all bombarded daily with messages extolling the virtues of being thin, but curiously only some women develop what we call internalization of the ideal of thinness,” said Jessica Suisman, lead author of the study and researcher at Michigan State University. “This suggests that genetic factors may make some women more susceptible to external pressure than others.”
To verify this, the researchers conducted the study with 300 twins between 12 and 22 years old and evaluated, through questionnaires,how they wanted to look like different characters from movies, magazines, and television. Then they compared the results obtained between twin pairs with identical genetic information and those who shared only 50 percent of their genes. The results showed that identical twins had much more similar levels of ‘idealization of thinness’ than the rest. A later analysis indicated that the hereditary factor in the idealization of thinness is 43 percent, which means that almosthalf of the differences between women in this regard are due to genetic causes.
On the other hand, the study also shows the importance of the environment in which a woman operates: factors such as the circle of friends, the practice of sports and the messages received through the media are also relevant. “When studying the obsession with thinness, both environmental and genetic factors must be taken into account,” the scientists concluded.
