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About Lynda
Lynda Boothroyd is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Durham University, where she is also a Fellow of the Durham Research Methods Centre. Her research centres on evolutionary and cross-cultural understandings of interpersonal attraction and sexual selection, with recent work focusing on body ideals in rural Nicaragua and the impacts of visual experience on body size preferences. Boothroyd employs a multidisciplinary approach drawing from evolutionary psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, and biological anthropology, utilizing mixed-methods including laboratory experiments, field studies in subsistence populations, and body image interventions. Pioneering studies in Nicaragua have shown that television exposure in media-naïve communities drives preferences for thinner female bodies, reshaping local beauty standards towards unhealthy ideals. She leads a five-year project developing and testing culturally appropriate body image education programmes for teenagers across six Latin American countries, with pilot trials in Nicaragua and Colombia demonstrating increased media literacy, reduced endorsement of unrealistic standards, and improved self-confidence.
In addition to research, Boothroyd engages in science communication through BBC short films and The Conversation articles on body image, sex, and gender issues. She serves as a trainer for Succeed, the UK version of an international preventative body image programme, training peer leaders at Durham and Newcastle Universities. Her contributions include editorial roles, such as co-editing Experimental Approaches to Body Image, Representation and Perception (Frontiers in Psychology, 2021), and organising the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association conference in 2012. Awards include the association's inaugural Excellence in Public Communication and Outreach Award (2026), Services to the Community Award (2025), election as vice-president (2018), and keynote at PsyPAG 2017. Key publications encompass Television Consumption Drives Perceptions of Female Body Attractiveness in a Population Undergoing Technological Transition (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2020), Television exposure predicts body size ideals in rural Nicaragua (British Journal of Psychology, 2016), Pilot trial assessing acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effects of a body image intervention for adolescents in rural Nicaragua (Body Image, 2025), and Evolutionary Approaches to Beauty (2026).
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