NZ women critical of their appearance

A survey of New Zealand women has found they are less comfortable with their appearance than those in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

The survey was conducted by Universal McCann, a company that advises advertisers how to reach their target audience.

Only 48 per cent of the 900 New Zealand women questioned were happy with their appearance, compared with 60 per cent of Malaysian women and 58 per cent of Thai women.

New Zealand women were happiest with their breasts, but were likely to want to change their body from the waist down - stomach, and thighs being high priorities.

Interestingly, New Zealanders were far more likely to choose diet and exercise to change their appearance over products and treatments, including surgery, despite being the most accepting of cosmetic surgery.

Because New Zealand was the only Western nation to take part in the survey cultural differences need to be taken into account when comparing the results.

Universal McCann spokesman Nimesh Amin said because this was the first time the survey has been conducted it was hard to make assumptions without comparing it with something.

"Perhaps appearance has different cultural meanings and importance in relation to how happy you are (in different cultures).

"The influence of the media is going to have different impacts on people... at the moment it's still a theory, but (is) something we will definitely look into."

Mr Amin said the survey will probably be conducted again in two years, to track any changes in attitude.

- NZPA