Family genes might play a significant role in the pressures that women face when it comes to staying thin and watching their weight, according to a recent study by MSU researchers.
The study, conducted by researchers in the Department of Psychology, found genetics play a role in how women view themselves, to the point where some could be predisposed to eating disorders.
After comparing more than 300 female twins, researchers found identical twins — who share at least half of the same genes — more often had similar ideals of thinness and beauty than fraternal twins, who share far fewer genes.
One of the key terms involved in this study is thin-ideal internalization, which is the extent to which an individual “buys into” socially defined ideals of attractiveness and engages in behaviors designed to approximate these ideals.
“We wanted to do some better work to help improve (in) lowering these disorders” said Jessica Suisman, the study’s lead researcher. “What we wanted to notice, despite that most women are open to media exposure, (is) if specific genes play a role in thin-ideal internalization.”
The team surveyed the twins, ages 12 to 22, measuring how much they wanted to be like popular actresses or other thin celebrities. The test compared identical twins and fraternal twins, measuring how siblings’ answers differed from one another.
“The first thing that we found was that identical twins were a lot more similar than fraternal twins,” Suisman said. “They were more similar in saying that they wanted to look like those thin models.”
The results showed with identical twins, there are higher rates of ideal-thin internalization compared to fraternal twins, which would mean genetics play a heavy role. Heritability of thin-ideal internalization came in at 43 percent, which signifies nearly half the reason that women differ is related to genetics.
“Our study results show that half of thin-ideal internalization is related to genetics, while (environment) controls the other half. What was interesting was how between identical twins, there were different ways that environmental issues played a role on these twins,” Suisman said.
This latest study is gaining attention and is changing some students’ views.
Psychology senior Ali Weinberger, who is a student in a class taught by Suisman, said she feels genetics are the main reason behind ideal-thin perceptions but the environment plays a role, too.
“Genetics plays a bigger role in everything, but if you only have genetics, then you won’t have any eating disorder,” Weinberger said. “If you have both, it will happen; it must be a combination.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
