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March 10, 2025 – Researchers say their findings show that people’s perceptions of body weight are “flexible” and “adult-like” from the age of seven upwards, and have implications for our understanding of body size and the perceptions, and possible misperceptions, of weight in health and well-being.
Study lead author Durham University Professor Dr. Lynda Boothroyd conducted the first-of-its-kind study to examine the flexibility of body weight perceptions in children and young adults.
The research found that kids as young as seven adjust how heavy or light they rate other people’s bodies after looking at a series of pictures of low or high weight bodies.
The study uncovered a “significant” shift in weight perceptions after exposure to images depicting various body weights.
The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, showed that the manner in which our brains represent what constitutes “heavy” or “light” develops at a very young age.
