Recommendations to improve body image research in an increasingly globalised world

Research on body image has experienced dramatic growth in the past 60 years and an important facet of this work has been the emergence of sub-disciplinary work conducted with different social identity groups (Andersen-Fye, 2011; Cash, 2004, 2012; Swami, 2017a). Despite these advances, our experience as reviewers for a range of journals suggests that research conducted in, and publications emanating from, developing countries sometimes lack the rigour and empiricism that would enhance our understanding of body image in diverse cultural groups. In this article, we detail some of the common issues that we have come across and that we believe are hampering basic and applied research on body image. The list below is not exhaustive, but we hope it will help to stimulate more rigorous planning of research on body image – and indeed psychological research in general – in an increasingly globalised world.