That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance.

Abstract

Objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. Roberts, 1997) posits that American culture socializes women to adopt observers' perspectives on their physical selves. This self-objectification is hypothesized to (a) produce body shame, which in turn leads to restrained eating, and (b) consume attentional resources, which is manifested in diminished mental performance. Two experiments manipulated self-objectification by having participants try on a swimsuit or a sweater. Experiment 1 tested 72 women and found that self-objectification increased body shame, which in turn predicted restrained eating. Experiment 2 tested 42 women and 40 men and found that these effects on body shame and restrained eating replicated for women only. Additionally, self-objectification diminished math performance for women only. Discussion centers on the causes and consequences of objectifying women's bodies.

The developmental effects of media-ideal internalization and self-objectification processes on adolescents’ negative body-feelings, dietary restraint, and binge eating

“…Accordingly, we did not observe a direct association between (T2) self-objectification via body surveillance and later (T4) dietary restraint or (T4) binge eating; these associations were fully mediated by (T3) negative body-feelings. Prior experimental studies found that self-objectification resulted in increased negative body-feelings, which were then predictive of dieting practices among adults in the later phases of these studies [36,79]. The role of negative body-feelings in the onset of binge eating, a central assumption of the affect regulation theories [80], is also well documented in previous research among community samples of adults of both genders and adolescent girls (see [12,80] for reviews).…”

“…Self-objectification (via body surveillance): whereas self-objectification involves a broad orientation to valuing appearance attributes over other personal characteristics (e.g., competence) [36,37], in line with prior objectification theory research [30,38,40,[47][48][49] we preferred to define it more narrowly as body surveillance [43,44]. Indeed, the literature has often equated body surveillance with self-objectification using these constructs interchangeably [32,34].…”

“…This sexual objectification is ubiquitous, occurring interpersonally across a variety of social interactions and mainly via media representations of female and male bodies that equate an individual's worth with the extent to which he/she fits the promoted standard of body size/shape [17,[27][28][29][30][31][32][35][36][37][38][39][40]. Although women and men may experience the cultural meaning of such objectification differently, both genders may encounter sexual objectification and the associated consequences [17,30,31,[38][39][40][41].…”

Future directions for positive body image research

“…Weight dissatisfaction, but not BMI, is related to lower academic grades among adolescence girls in Finland (Mikkila, Lahit-Koski, Pierine, Virane, & Rimpela, 2003), China (Xie et al, 2006), and both girls and boys in the U.S. (Florin, Shults, & Stelttler, 2011). Moreover, adopting an observer's view on the self, the antithesis of embodiment (Menzel & Levine, 2011) and an obstacle to body appreciation (Augustus-Horvath & Tylka, 2011), is associated with reduced performance on mathematical (Helb, King, & Ling, 2004;Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998), cognitive (Quinn, Kallen, Christie, Twenge, & Fredrickson, 2004) and intelligence tests (Gay & Castano, 2010). Self-objectification is also associated with reduced physical performance Running Head: Future Directions 20 (Fredrickson & Harrison, 2005).…”

Strategy narratives and wellbeing challenges: The role of everyday self-presentation

“…Objectification theory provides a framework for understanding the link between women's lived experiences and mental health risks (Fredrickson et al 1998). The theory postulates that women perform persistent body surveillance (i.e., how they look to others) within interpersonal and social encounters so that they can be "looked at and evaluated" in a positive light to generate a sense of self-worth (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997;Strelan and Hargreaves 2005).…”