Professor Martin Tovee

Professor

Department: Psychology

My research focuses on the problem of body image dysfunction in Eating Disordered patients. People with Eating Disorders usually exhibit strong concerns about their weight and tend to overestimate their body size. This body image dysfunction is a key diagnostic feature in both Anorexia and Bulimia, and plays an important role in the aetiology and maintenance of these conditions. By understanding both the perceptual and psychological factors in how people assess their bodies, we hope to develop new strategies to improve the treatment of these conditions.

My research also explores human mate selection and the perception of physical attractiveness in an evolutionary psychology context. One of the most fundamental problems for any organism is mate selection. In evolutionary terms it is important that we are sensitive to the physical cues that honestly signal that one individual is more desirable (i.e. fitter and with a better reproductive potential) than another, and use these cues to choose the partner who is most likely to enhance our chances of successful reproduction. My research has focussed on the visual cues on which these judgements are based, and how environment and context may alter these judgements.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Body size aftereffects are adult-like from 7 years onward, Batish, A., Parchment, A., Handy, E., Tovée, M., Boothroyd, L. 1 Jun 2025, In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Can Adults Accurately Judge Child Weight Status?, Ridley, B., McCarty, K., Kramer, R., Tovee, M., Cornelissen, P. 25 Jun 2025, In: Children
Determinants of child body weight categorization in parents and health care professionals: An experimental study, Evans, E., Ridley-Gamble, B., Cornelissen, P., Kramer, R., Araújo-Soares, V., Tovee, M. 1 Feb 2025, In: British Journal of Health Psychology
Effect of cognitive bias modification training on body image dissatisfaction in adolescents with anorexia nervosa or depression—a pilot feasibility randomized controlled crossover study, Glombitza, E., Cornelissen, P., Tovee, M., Legenbauer, T. 26 Sep 2025, In: Frontiers in Psychology
Mechanisms and outcomes of a very low intensity intervention to improve parental acknowledgement and understanding of childhood overweight/obesity, embedded in the National Child Measurement Programme: A sub‐study within a large cluster Randomized Controlled Trial ( MapMe2 ), Evans, E., Jones, C., Adamson, A., Jones, A., Basterfield, L., de Aguiar Greca, J., Sermin‐Reed, L., Patterson, M., McSweeney, L., Dhami, R., Ells, L., Gahagan, A., Robinson, T., Shahrokhabadi, M., Teare, D., Tovée, M., Araújo Soares, V. Feb 2025, In: British Journal of Health Psychology
Perceptual body image tasks require ethnically appropriate stimuli, Ridley, B., Hamamoto, Y., Cornelissen, P., Kramer, R., McCarty, K., Tovée, M. 1 Jun 2025, In: Body Image
‘’Thank God we are like this here’’: A qualitative investigation of televisual media influence on women’s body image in an ethnically diverse rural Nicaraguan population, Thornborrow, T., Boothroyd, L., Tovee, M. 1 Mar 2025, In: Body Image
Adaptation and Validation of the MapMe Body Image Scales in Spanish Parents of Schoolchildren, Inclan-Lopez, P., Martinez-Andres, M., Jones, A., Tovée, M., Adamson, A., Bartolome-Gutierrez, R. 8 Apr 2024, In: Children
Cultural Predictors of Facial Ethnicity Preference in the Miskitu and Mestizos of Rural Nicaragua, Jucker, J., Thornborrow, T., Batres, C., Penton-Voak, I., Jamieson, M., Burt, D., Bowie, W., Tovée, M., Boothroyd, L. 1 Apr 2024, In: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
Evidence for a specific distortion in perceptual body image in eating disorders: a replication and extension, Brokjøb, L., Cornelissen, P., Gumančík, J., McCarty, K., Tovée, M., Cornelissen, K. 22 Nov 2024, In: PLoS One