Body Image, Mood, and Televised Images of Attractiveness: The Role of Social Comparison

Abstract

Heinherg and Thompson (I 995) demonstrated that females exposed to a compila tion of media images (commercials) reflecting the current societally sanctioned standards of thinness and attractiveness experienced greater mood and body image disturbance than females who viewed a neutral, nonappearance-related control video Social comparison has been offered as one mechanism for the negative out comes of such media-based exposures. In the current study, social comparison was manipulated by creating three instructional conditions: comparison, distraction, and neutral. Instructional set did not differentially affect recall ot appearance or nonappearance aspects of either an appearance-related collection of commercials or a nonappearance video (e.g., Heinberg & . However, partici pants in the comparison condition self-reported a greater degree of self-to-model comparison than participants in the distraction or neutral conditions. A marginally signifii ant three-way interaction between condition, tape, and time emerged for a measure of appearance dissatisfaction, suggesting that comparison participants' body images were more negatively affected than the other groups. Tape by Time in teractions also emerged for measures of anger, anxiety, and depression, revealing that greater distress was associated with the viewing ot media images reflecting the c urrent societal bias towards thinness and attractiveness. Dispositional level of in ternalization of societal values regarding attractiveness moderated women's reac tions to the two video presentations. The findings are discussed with regard to sociocultural models of body image and possible implications for interventions for appeal a nee-re la ted distress A large number of survey and correlational studies have supported the notion that sociocultural factors play a role in the development of body image disturbance (Fallon, f 990; Heinberg, 1996). Recent findings from contn illed laboratory studies provide even stronger support for a socio-

The effect of digital alteration disclaimer labels on social comparison and body image: Instructions and individual differences

“…The main effects observed for instructional condition showed that instructions were not irrelevant, as being asked to rate the advertisements in different ways influenced how participants processed the thin ideal images, supporting previous research in this area (Cattarin et al, 2000;Tiggemann & McGill, 2004;Tiggemann & Polivy, 2010;Tiggemann et al, 2009). The three comparison items embedded within general items were sufficiently powerful to lead to increased levels of both social appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction.…”

“…In particular, it has been shown that social comparison instructions lead to increased appearance comparison processing and body dissatisfaction for women exposed to thin ideal advertisements (Cattarin, Thompson, Thomas, & Williams, 2000;Tiggemann & McGill, 2004;Tiggemann & Polivy, 2010;Tiggemann, Polivy, & Hargreaves, 2009). Accordingly, it is likely that experimental instructions might also affect how women process the information contained in digital alteration disclaimer labels, and consequently affect body image.…”

Understanding the role of gender in body image research settings: Participant gender preferences for researchers and co-participants in interviews, focus groups and interventions

“…Our qualitative findings also point towards the need to consider the professional capabilities and personal qualities of those conducting interviews, focus groups and intervention programs about body image, as these researcher characteristics can potentially influence participant comfort levels and subsequent self-disclosure. Although reported relatively infrequently in comparison to professional and personal capabilities and experience, appearance considerations may be of particular interest in body image research due to the known impact of appearance-related social comparisons on body dissatisfaction (e.g., Cattarin, Thompson, Thomas, & Williams, 2000;Jones, 2001;Keery, van den Berg, & Thompson, 2004). Researchers who meet conventional standards of attractiveness should be 24 Running Head: GENDER IN BODY IMAGE RESEARCH aware of the potential influence of their appearance and seek to emphasize the other qualities that are known to comfort participants such as professional qualifications and being understanding.…”

An Examination of General and Specific Motivational Mechanisms for the Relations Between Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Behaviors

“…Results from a number of laboratory experiments indicate that girls and women experience decreased body satisfaction (e.g., Groesz et al, 2002), decreased self-esteem (Irving, 1990) and self-confidence (Tiggemann & Slater, 2003), increased negative affect (Cattarin, Thompson, Thomas, & Williams, 2000), and increased eating disorder symptoms (Mills, Polivy, Herman, & Tiggemann, 2002) following exposure to images of thin beautiful women that epitomize the thin-ideal. Moreover, investigations of the processes by which sociocultural factors contribute to eating pathology suggest that perceived pressures to be thin are associated with a thin-ideal internalization, resulting in body dissatisfaction (Stice, 2001;Stice & Whitenton, 2002), which, in turn, predicted the onset of bulimic symptoms through restrained eating and negative affect (Stice, Zlemba, Margolis, & Flick, 1996;Stice, Shaw, & Nemeroff, 1998).…”