It’s a little depressing, but it probably confirms what you always thought.
People’s appearance and their money dominate how satisfied they feel with life, a survey reveals.
Among women, appearance was the third strongest predictor of how satisfied they were with life.
The top two places were taken by money and satisfaction with their partner.
For men their appearance came second in predicting how satisfied they were with life — it was second only to how happy they were with their financial situation.
Dr David Frederick, the study’s first author, said:
“Our study shows that men’s and women’s feelings about their weight and appearance play a major role in how satisfied they are with their lives overall.”
The survey asked over 12,000 US adults about their personality, relationships, self-esteem and more.
Dr Frederick said:
“Few men (24 percent) and women (20 percent) felt very or extremely satisfied with their weight, and only half felt somewhat to extremely satisfied.
These findings are consistent with the emphasis placed on the importance of being slender for women and for appearing athletic and/or lean for men.
It would seem therefore, that we still have a long way to go before we achieve the goal of Americans being truly happy with their bodies.”
Other key findings from the study included:
- People who watched more hours of television per week were less satisfied with their appearance and weight.
- People who were more satisfied with their physical appearance and weight reported more secure attachment styles, versus fearful and dismissive attachment styles.
- People who were more satisfied with their appearance reported greater self-esteem, greater satisfaction with life, sex life, friends, romantic partners, family, and financial situation.
- Body Mass Index (BMI) was strongly related to dissatisfaction with appearance and weight.
Dr Frederick said:
“…body dissatisfaction and anxious attachment styles can lead to an out of control spiral and fuel each other.
People who are less confident in their appearance become more fearful that their partner will leave, which further fuels their worries about their appearance.”
The study was published in the journal Body Image (Frederick et al., 2016).
