Prof 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
A Randomised Control Trial Investigating the Efficacy of the MapMe Intervention on Parental Ability to Correctly Categorise Overweight in Their Child and the Impact on Child BMI Z-Score Change at 1 Year, Jones, A., Mann, K., Cutler, L., Pearce, M., Tovée, M., Ells, L., Araujo-Soares, V., Arnott, B., Harris, J., Adamson, A. 21 Sep 2023, In: Children
How do looking patterns, anti-fat bias, and causal weight attributions relate to adults’ judgements of child weight?, Evans, E., Tovée, M., Hancock, P., Cornelissen, P. 1 Mar 2023, In: Body Image
Men’s perception of current and ideal body composition and the influence of media internalisation on body judgements, Groves, V., Ridley, B., Cornelissen, P., Maalin, N., Mohamed, S., Kramer, R., McCarty, K., Tovee, M., Cornelissen, K. 2 May 2023, In: Frontiers in Psychology
Sociocultural drivers of body image and eating disorder risk in rural Nicaraguan women, Thornborrow, T., Evans, E., Tovee, M., Boothroyd, L. 6 Sep 2022, In: Journal of Eating Disorders
The degree to which the cultural ideal is internalized predicts judgments of male and female physical attractiveness, Ridley, B., Cornelissen, P., Maalin, N., Mohamed, S., Kramer, R., McCarty, K., Tovee, M. 19 Oct 2022, In: Frontiers in Psychology
The Effect of Own Body Concerns on Judgments of Other Women’s Body Size, Cornelissen, K., Brokjøb, L., Gumančík, J., Lowdon, E., McCarty, K., Irvine, K., Tovée, M., Cornelissen, P. 6 May 2022, In: Frontiers in Psychology
3D visualisation of psychometric estimates for the ideal male body, Mohamed, S., Kramer, R., Thornborrow, T., Pollet, T., Tovee, M., Cornelissen, P. 1 Sep 2021, In: Body Image
Beyond BMI for self-estimates of body size and shape: A new method for developing stimuli correctly calibrated for body composition, Maalin, N., Mohamed, S., Kramer, R., Cornelissen, P., Martin, D., Tovee, M. 1 Jun 2021, In: Behavior Research Methods
Can realistic dolls protect body satisfaction in young girls?, Boothroyd, L., Tovée, M., Evans, E. 1 Jun 2021, In: Body Image
Fat talk is predicted by body dissatisfaction and social comparison with no interaction effect: Evidence from two replication studies, Pollet, T., Dawson, S., Tovée, M., Cornelissen, P., Cornelissen, K. 1 Sep 2021, In: Body Image

PGR Supervision

Bethany Ridley-Gamble Developing an intervention for childhood obesity Start Date: 01/10/2021

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