A Danish study, the results of which were published on the ScienceNordic website, showed that men and women have a wrong perception of both their own and their partner's weight.
These misconceptions, which also apply to children, can cause serious problems for members of both sexes, according to scientists who surveyed more than 1.000 people.
Respondents were asked to estimate their own weight and the weight of their partner. It turns out that men generally underestimate their weight and exaggerate the weight of their wives or girlfriends.
Men tend to see themselves as slimmer, even when they are clearly overweight. Contrary to them, women are far more critical of themselves and in most cases they think they are fatter than they really are. For researchers, the main culprit of such distorted representations is the media, which bombards us with "ideal" female bodies.
The authors of the study, however, are troubled by another problem. Namely, the same behavior was observed in parents in relation to children.
"Parents see their daughter fatter and their son thinner than they really are. They are stricter with girls than boys," explained Vibeke Tornej Kristensen, a sociologist from the University of Copenhagen who led the research.
She warned about the harmfulness of these misconceptions, which can endanger children's health.
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