Mapping Core Beliefs about the Body
with Jesse Barrera, Jeremy Clifton, Alia Crum, Lauren Heathcote,
Tao Jiang, Kellie Pagador, Nate Yanowitch, and Rachael Yielder
Our bodies are central to nearly every aspect of our lives, yet people can hold remarkably different beliefs about what their bodies are fundamentally like. Some see their bodies as capable and adaptable; others as fragile or fixed. Some experience the body as an ally working with them, while others experience it as something that gets in their way. These beliefs have the potential to shape how people approach exercise, illness, recovery, aging, and other physical challenges, but we currently lack a comprehensive framework for understanding and measuring them. The Body Beliefs Mapping Project aims to build that framework.
To identify the fundamental beliefs people hold about their bodies, our team conducted an extensive mapping process, drawing from more than 3,000 scientific studies, surveys of more than 1,500 people, qualitative interviews with people representing diverse bodily experiences and expertise, more than 20,000 social media posts, and hundreds of books and other texts. This work generated a comprehensive list of core body beliefs and the foundation for an inventory used to measure them. We are now in the process of validating our inventory and examining how these beliefs relate to other psychological characteristics and meaningful aspects of health and life. Our long-term goal is to establish a new foundation for studying how beliefs about the body shape health, well-being, and performance, and ultimately to identify whether changing these beliefs could help people navigate physical challenges, recover from setbacks, and thrive across the lifespan.
The PR (Pregnant Runner) Study
with Alia Crum, Margie Davenport, and Sarah Johnson
Pregnancy and postpartum can dramatically change how people experience their bodies, including what feels comfortable, what feels possible, and what they believe their bodies are capable of. For runners, these changes can be especially noticeable as they navigate decisions about whether and how to keep running during pregnancy and when and how to return after giving birth. Yet we know very little about the role that beliefs about the body play in shaping these experiences.
This project examines how runners’ beliefs about their bodies shape their experiences during pregnancy and the transition back to running after childbirth. We will follow experienced runners from early pregnancy through six months postpartum, measuring their body beliefs, physical and mental well-being, and experiences with running over time. By linking these surveys with objective data from participants’ Garmin devices, we can examine how runners’ beliefs and experiences relate to changes in their real-world activity and training. Understanding which beliefs help runners adapt to the changes of pregnancy and postpartum could ultimately inform better guidance and resources for pregnant and postpartum athletes, while also providing broader insight into how our beliefs about the body shape health and behavior during major physical transitions.
The MAMA (Mindsets and
Maternal Aging) Study
with Alia Crum, Chiara Gasteiger, Tao Jiang, Andrea Morales Leal, and Nate Yanowitch
Pregnancy is one of the most dramatic periods of physiological change the human body undergoes—yet we know surprisingly little about how the beliefs we hold about our bodies shape how we experience those changes. This longitudinal study will follow participants across pregnancy and the first six months postpartum to examine how their body beliefs influence changes in biological aging over time. By pairing repeated blood-based measures of biological aging with assessments of body beliefs, mental health, health behaviors, and physical recovery, we will examine whether adaptive body beliefs (such as seeing the body as responsive and as an ally) is associated with healthier psychological and physiological trajectories. More broadly, the study tests a novel possibility: Whether how people understand and relate to their changing bodies may matter for how their bodies adapt to one of life’s most profound biological transitions.
Thinking About Movement: Exercise Mindsets, Health, and Well-Being Among College Athletes and Non-Athletes
with Kris Evans and Alia Crum
Physical activity is widely recognized as beneficial for physical and mental health, but how people think about exercise may be just as important as how much they do. Some people view exercise as enjoyable, rewarding, and beneficial, while others experience it as stressful, unpleasant, or never quite enough. These beliefs, known as exercise mindsets, may shape not only people's motivation to be active, but also the psychological benefits they derive from movement.
In this study, we examined how exercise mindsets relate to health and well-being among 300 college students, half of whom were varsity athletes. We measured students' beliefs about the experience and benefits of exercise, along with indicators of flourishing, resilience, burnout, and psychological distress. We found that student-athletes generally held more positive exercise mindsets and reported higher flourishing and resilience than non-athletes. Across both groups, students with more adaptive exercise mindsets reported greater well-being and lower burnout and distress, even when accounting for their physical activity levels. These findings suggest that how people think about exercise may be an important dimension of health and well-being, with implications for developing mindset-based approaches to support healthier, more sustainable relationships with physical activity.