體態與生活滿意程度之關係

Abstract

現今社會，對於外貌的要求日形亦重，國外有許多文獻探討過外貌在各個層面的影響。外貌包含了相貌以及體態兩個部分，國內研究對於客觀體態的探討多半著重於健康層面，因此本文針對國內較為缺少的環節，以體態做為主軸，探討體態對經濟層面及生活滿意程度等心理層面的影響。\n\n 本文以Van Praag et al.(2003)一文的二階層聯立模型做為理論依據，實證方法則採取兩階段工具變數法，在第一階段中以OLS model估計體態對經濟層面的影響，第二階段則利用上述結果帶入ordered probit model中，分析體態對生活滿意程度等心理層面的影響。 \n\n 結果發現，在台灣社會體態對於經濟層面影響以及整體生活滿意程度影響並不顯著，這有別於國外研究所得之體態過胖和薪資以及整體滿意程度有顯著負相關的結果。但若針對體態內心自我認同度來看，體態對自身滿意程度以及自我認同體態吸引他人程度皆有顯著的負相關。

Numerous studies have shown that physical appearance has strong economic as well psychological effects on an individual’s well-being in our society. A person’s physical appearance usually is characterized by his or her facial feature and body shape. However, recent studies on physical appearance in Taiwan mostly focus on the health effects of body shape and the psychological outcomes of physical appearance are still largely unexplored. Therefore, this study aims at this important but previously neglected aspect of research on physical appearance by examining the relationship between body shape and life satisfaction.\n\n The theoretical framework of this study is based on the model developed by Van Praag et al. (2003), and the empirical approach is a two-stage instrumental variable estimation. Specifically, we estimate an earning equation with the level of income as the dependent variable in the first stage, and then in the second stage, the relationship between body shape and life satisfaction is estimated with an ordered probit model.\n\n The findings of this study show that body shape does not have a significant impact on an individual’s income and life satisfaction. This result is substantially different from what have been found in previous studies using data from the US and European countries suggesting that obesity is negatively correlated with one’s earnings and life satisfaction. However, the results of this study also indicate that obesity has strong negative relationships with the self-reported levels of satisfaction and attractiveness on body shape.