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. 2022 Sep 9;17(9):e0274099.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274099. eCollection 2022.

Body image and self-perception in women with navel piercings

Christine Coleman  1 , Helge Gillmeister  1
Affiliations

Body image and self-perception in women with navel piercings

Christine Coleman et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The present study investigated how women's body image and body-perceptual processes are affected by navel piercings, an embellishment of the abdominal region women often feel negatively about. We probed perceptual (response times), cognitive (surveys), affective (aesthetic ratings) and neural (event-related potentials, ERPs) facets of (own) body perception. We found that navel piercings are primarily motivated by the desire to enhance one's body image, and can significantly improve bodily self-perception relative to before and to imagined removal of the piercing. Hence, body image concerns in women with navel piercings were found to be comparable to those of a control group; and their aesthetic ratings of other women's abdomens only differed, positively, for images depicting navel piercings. ERPs indicated that the sight of navel piercings enhances early structural encoding of bodies as well as late emotional-motivational processes, especially in women with navel piercings. We further found a strong self-advantage in both cortical and behavioural responses during recognition of own and others' abdomens, especially for images displaying the piercing. Altogether, findings suggest that navel piercings become strongly, and beneficially, integrated into women's bodily self image. Such piercings may thus be seen as expressions of body care that can protect against self-harming thoughts and behaviours.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Overview of participant samples and measures.
Note that not all participants contributed to all tasks (see also Results). * Of these, n = 18 completed both Online BICI and Aesthetic ratings and Online BPNPQ. ** EEG data was recorded from n = 16 only; one additional participant contributed behavioural responses only.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Examples of images depicting women’s abdomens with (left panel) and without (right panel) navel piercings.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Raincloud plots of BICI scores (left panel) and aesthetic ratings of bodies with and without navel piercings (right two panels) in participants with (orange) and without (turquoise) navel piercings.
Each circle represents one participant, n.s. denotes a non-significant group difference, ** denotes p < .001.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Visual ERPs to images of other women’s abdomens with (solid waveforms) and without (dotted waveforms) navel piercings obtained during the aesthetic ratings task from participants with (black waveforms) and without (grey waveforms) navel piercings.
Top panel shows right-hemispheric posterior electrode PO8; bottom panel shows left frontal electrode F1 (see insets for electrode locations).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Visual ERPs, obtained during the self-recognition task, to images of participants’ own abdomen (black waveforms) and other women’s abdomens (grey waveforms) depicted with (solid waveforms) and without (dotted waveforms) navel piercings.
Top panel shows right-hemispheric posterior electrode PO8; bottom panel shows left frontal electrode F1 (see insets for electrode locations).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Raincloud plots of correct RTs to own (turquoise) and strangers’ bodies (orange) with (left panel) and without (right panel) navel piercings.
Each circle represents one participant, * denotes p < .05, ** denotes p < .001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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