Specifics of the Perception of Female Corporality by Women Who Resorted to the Services of Aesthetic Surgery

Objectives. The objectives were to study the specifics of cognitive empathy in women with aesthetic surgery towards women with different types of corporality. Background. Body modification technologies are becoming more common and feasible, creating variety of types of female corporality, which demand scientific research and understanding. In the article, appearance is understood as text, expressing personal values, goals and meanings within the framework of a certain semiotic system. Study design. The study examined specifics of cognitive empathy, influence of body image on the quality of life, level of perfectionism, and hierarchy of values. The presence of intergroup differences was established by means of Mann-Whitney criterion and chi-squared Pearson statistic. Participants. 25 women, who underwent aesthetic surgery (27 ± 4,6 years of age) and 25 women who did not change their appearance surgically (25 ± 4,5 years of age). Measurements. The author’s “Appearance as a Statement” method, questionnaires “The influence of body image on the quality of life” by T.F. Cash, “The Multidimensional Scale of Perfec¬tionism” by P. Hewitt and G. Flett, and “Value Orientations” by O.I. Motkova and T.A. Ogneva. Results. It is shown that women with aesthetic surgeries show significantly lower cognitive empathy towards owners of all types of corporality, except for their own type. On the contrary, women who did not change their appearance surgically show high cognitive empathy towards all variants of unconventional corporality (anorexia, overweight, bodybuilding, extreme bodily modifications), except for the female bodies modified by aesthetic surgery. Conclusions. The differences found in the women’s level of cognitive empathy towards owners of different types of corporality depend on their own corporality type.