Dying To Be Thin: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Body Mass Index on Restricted Eating Among Women

Abstract

Following terror management theory, the authors suggest women's striving to attain a thin physique is fueled in part by existential concerns. In three studies, women restricted consumption of a nutritious but fattening food in response to reminders of mortality (mortality salience; MS). When conducted in private (Study 1), this effect was found among women but not men; when replicated in a group setting in which social comparison was likely (Studies 2 and 3), only women who were relatively less successful attaining the thin ideal (i.e., high body mass index; BMI) restricted eating after MS. In Study 3, MS caused high BMI women to perceive themselves as more discrepant from their ideal thinness; this perceived failure mediated the effects of MS and BMI on eating behavior. Findings are discussed from a self-regulatory framework, which considered in the context of pressures for women to be thin, can shed light on health risk behavior.

Is objectification always harmful? Reactions to objectifying images and feedback as a function of self-objectification and mortality salience

“…As in prior TMT research (see e.g. Goldenberg, Arndt, Hart, & Brown, 2005), there were no significant effects of mortality salience (and/or self-objectification) on self-reported mood. …”

What would you have as a last supper? Thoughts about death influence evaluation and consumption of food products

“…It may be valuable to reconcile the results from Study 2 with research by Goldenberg et al (2005). As mentioned previously, these authors reasoned that mortality salience should foster behavior in line with the social norm to stay thin.…”

“…For example, mortality salience decreased the consumption of fattening food for women with a high body mass index, presumably in an attempt to bolster one's self-esteem by complying with societal norms of thinness (Goldenberg, Arndt, Hart, & Brown, 2005; see also Ferraro, Shiv, & Bettman, 2005). More direct evidence for worldview defense comes from a study in which participants viewed films of fatal car crashes.…”

Self‐sacrifice as self‐defence: Mortality salience increases efforts to affirm a symbolic immortal self at the expense of the physical self

“…Further, the effects of reminders of death have been demonstrated with respect to a variety of aversive control topics (e.g. being paralysed, Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Schimel, 1999; general anxieties, Greenberg, Simon, Harmon-Jones, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Chatel, 1995;social exclusion, Schimel et al, 1999;uncertainty, Landau, Johns, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Martens, 2004;taking an exam, McGregor et al, 1998; giving a speech in public, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, Simon, & Breus, 1994; death of a loved one, Greenberg et al, 1994; or experiencing intense physical pain, Goldenberg, Arndt, Hart, & Brown, 2005).…”