A new University of Brighton project is bringing together international researchers to confront structural bias in body image science and how we study bodies.
8 July 2026
For decades, scientists have relied on body image research to shape how we understand body confidence, eating disorders and the impact of beauty standards. But much of that evidence has come from studying a remarkably narrow group, predominantly white, middle-class people.
Researchers at the University of Brighton now say that has left millions of people's experiences misunderstood, overlooked or simply missing from the evidence used to inform healthcare, education and public health campaigns.
Now, a new seminar series, funded by the British Psychological Society, is bringing together international researchers and community partners to examine how body image research can better reflect the diversity of people's lives, cultures and identities.
The researchers say improving the science isn't simply an academic exercise. Body image research influences everything from mental health treatment and school programmes to public health campaigns and the messages people receive about what a ‘healthy’ or ‘ideal’ body looks like. Getting that evidence right could ultimately lead to better support for people whose experiences have too often been overlooked.
Dr Jamie Chan, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton, said: “From the very beginning, the development of body image as a field of research has centred the experiences of white people.
Theories have been built on samples of white, middle-class university students and those samples have shaped everything: how we define body image, how we measure it, and what conclusions we draw.
“There's a kind of circularity to it. The field was built within Western institutions, it's largely still maintained by Western institutions, and so anything that challenges that looks, to some gatekeepers, like it doesn't belong. That has to change.”
These are not isolated cases. They reflect a broader pattern in which theories, sampling practices, research methods and analytical frameworks developed within white, Western university populations have been treated as universal, with consequences that extend far beyond academic journals.
Body image research informs clinical guidelines, public health campaigns and health behaviours like skin lightening interventions, amongst others.
Dr Chan, whose research examines how broader social injustices shape people's body image experiences at the individual level, said: “The problem wasn't the women. The problem was how experiences are interpreted. For example, in the past, we tried to understand body dissatisfaction through the thin ideal, but within Black culture for instance, the ideal is often about being curvy and shapely.
"When you apply a white measure to a different experience, you're not measuring their culturally unique body image. You're measuring how much they share or don't share white women's body image.”
The seminars will also showcase methods rarely used in body image research including story completion methodology, co-production approaches, and creative and decolonial frameworks. Several sessions will bring in community members who collaborated directly on the research being presented, as co-presenters, not simply as subjects.
The seminars part of the BPS 2026 Summer Seminar Series, funded by the British Psychological Society and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Brighton, in partnership with the Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England.
The seminars are free and open for booking by the public.
Dr Jamie Chan
Lecturer – School of Humanities and Social Science
Centre for Spatial and Social Justice, Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender, Inclusive Digital Societies Research Excellence Group