In the study, Carolien Martijn sought to investigate whether body satisfaction can increase when women learn to associate their appearance with social approval.

To test this theory, 57 normal weight women were tested on their levels of body satisfaction and self esteem, and were then photographed. Women were then shown the pictures of themselves in amongst photos of other women, and every photo was either followed by a smiling face or a neutral or a frowning face.

For 26 of the women, the photos of themselves were always followed by a smiling face (a fact which went unnoticed by them) and for the remaining 28 their photos were followed by randomly by neutral, smiling or frowning faces. The women were then all tested again on body satisfaction and self esteem.

For those women always shown smiling faces after their picture, body satisfaction increased following the experiment. For women with high body concerns, this increase in body satisfaction was significant. The self esteem of these high body concerned women also significantly increased after the experiment. This was not seen in the group whose photos were followed by random facial expressions.

Carolien Martijn said: "The positive effect we witnessed for women with a high level of body concern supports the idea that body satisfaction may be linked to the idea of social approval. Simply showing these women photographs of themselves followed by a smiling face - signalling social approval - increased their body satisfaction and self esteem significantly."

"This simple classic conditioning procedure may be a useful way to increase body and weight satisfaction, and it may be worth extending this experiment to a group of people with clinically diagnosed eating disorders."

The Dutch researchers plan to continue their research together with psychologists of the University of Sheffield to test strategies to enhance body image.

Source: British Psychological Society (Press Release)