Body Ideals in the Media: Perceived Attainability and Social Comparison Choices

Social comparison research suggests that people seek upward comparisons if the achievement seems attainable, but avoid them if it appears unattainable. This experiment (N = 169) manipulated attainability by presenting body-improvement articles about dieting/exercising (experimental group) or body-unrelated articles (control group). Social comparison choices were recorded through selective advertisement exposure, as participants browsed a computerized magazine with both “ideal body” ads and “regular person” ads. Body satisfaction was measured before and after exposure. Body-dissatisfied readers in the control group circumvented ideal body ads compared to satisfied readers. Body-dissatisfied participants in the experimental group viewed ideal body images longer than in the control group. No impact of ideal body imagery exposure on body satisfaction was found.     

Beyond Thinness: The Influence of a Curvaceous Body Ideal on Body Dissatisfaction in Black and White Women

This study examined whether a curvaceous body ideal differentially influenced sources of body dissatisfaction in 116 Black and 222 White women at a northeastern U.S. university. We measured idealization of and dissatisfaction with three components of a curvaceous ideal: breast size, buttock size, and weight. Although most women preferred a curvaceous body shape, more White women preferred this ideal to be slender with medium breasts whereas more Black women preferred this ideal to be curvier with medium breasts and large buttocks. Women discrepant from these ideals reported more dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction with the curvaceous ideal predicted appearance concerns. Findings highlight the need to consider valued body ideals other than thinness as potential sources of dissatisfaction among women of different racial/ethnic backgrounds.     

A Preliminary Investigation of Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Disorder Symptomatology with Bisexual Individuals

Body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptomatology were examined in bisexual individuals (n?=?139 women, n?=?37 men) and compared to lesbian/gay (n?=?51 women, n?=?96 men) and heterosexual individuals (n?=?82 women, n?=?34 men) in a U.S. online sample. Age, body mass index (BMI), income, and exercise frequency served as covariates. MANCOVA results showed a significant gender by sexual orientation interaction and significant main effects of gender and sexuality. Univariate tests were used to explore multivariate results. ANCOVA results for body dissatisfaction showed a significant gender by sexual orientation interaction. Post-hoc comparisons revealed higher levels of body dissatisfaction among all groups compared to heterosexual men. ANCOVA results for eating disorder symptomatology showed a significant main effect of sexual orientation. Post-hoc comparisons revealed higher levels of eating disorder symptoms among bisexual compared to heterosexual individuals. For bisexual men, gay community involvement, maladaptive social comparison, drive for muscularity, self-esteem, gender role orientation, and body dissatisfaction were explored as predictors of eating disorder symptomatology while controlling for age, BMI, exercise frequency, and income in a hierarchical regression analysis. The same factors, minus body dissatisfaction, were explored as predictors of body dissatisfaction in bisexual men. For bisexual women, similar factors, with the exception of drive for muscularity, were explored. Drive for muscularity predicted body dissatisfaction and exercise frequency predicted eating disorder symptomatology in bisexual men. BMI and self-esteem predicted body dissatisfaction in bisexual women; gay community involvement and body dissatisfaction predicted eating disorder symptomatology.     

An ecological momentary assessment of the effects of weight and shape social comparisons on women with eating pathology, high body dissatisfaction, and low body dissatisfaction

This research examined the effects of naturally occurring appearance comparisons on women's affect, body satisfaction, and compensatory cognitions and behaviors. Using ecological momentary assessment, women with high body dissatisfaction and eating pathology (EPHB), high body dissatisfaction (HB), or low body dissatisfaction (LB) recorded their reactions to appearance-focused social comparisons. EPHB and HB women made more upward appearance comparisons than LB women. All women experienced negative emotions and cognitions after upward comparisons, including increased guilt, body dissatisfaction, and thoughts of dieting. EPHB women were most negatively affected by comparisons; they experienced more intense negative emotions, more thoughts of dieting/exercising, and an increase in eating-disordered behavior after upward comparisons. HB women experienced more negative affective consequences and thoughts of dieting than LB women. Results are consistent with social comparison theory and provide important information that may be used to inform eating disorder treatment and prevention efforts.     

Body Image and Day-to-Day Social Interaction

Participants maintained a social interaction diary and completed a measure of body image. Body image was found to have three factors, body attractiveness, social attractiveness (how attractive people believed others found them to be), and general attractiveness. For both men and women, self-perceptions of body attractiveness and of social attractiveness were positively related to the intimacy they found in interaction. Self-perceptions of social attractiveness were positively related to women's confidence in social interaction and their perceived influence over interaction, whereas for men, confidence and influence were unrelated to social attractiveness. For both men and women, body image was unrelated to how enjoyable people found interactions to be and was weakly related to how responsive they felt others were to them. For both men and women, body image was also unrelated to how socially active people were and to the relative distribution of same- and opposite-sex interactions.     

The UCLA Body Project I: Gender and Ethnic Differences in Self-Objectification and Body Satisfaction Among 2,206 Undergraduates

This study examined whether objectification theory is useful for understanding gender, body mass, and ethnic differences in body satisfaction among 2,206 US undergraduates who completed a body image survey. Women reported lower body satisfaction than men (d?=?.37) and this was true across the majority of the BMI continuum. Very slender men, however, were less satisfied than very slender women who approached the female thin-ideal. Differences in body satisfaction among White, Asian, and Hispanic participants were small to moderate (ds?=?.18 to .45). Consistent with the prediction that self-objectification has particularly negative effects on women who deviate from the slender White ideal, the association between body dissatisfaction and appearance surveillance was strongest for heavier and minority women.     

Body attitudes and eating behaviors of female clothing sales personnel

Recent research suggests that social standards for ideal female beauty are related to negative body-image and dieting among young women. We hypothesized that women who work in settings that emphasize physical appearance (women's fashion clothing sales) would have more disturbed body attitudes and eating behaviors than college women. Sales personnel (n = 21) and students (n = 25) answered questions about their occupational status, weight, and demographic characteristics, and completed the Body-esteem Scale and the Eating Disorder Inventory. Weight and scores on the two scales were similar in both groups except that sales personnel reported more dissatisfaction with their body parts on the Body dissatisfaction scale of the Eating Disorder Inventory. Among sales personnel, those who perceived their appearance to be of greater importance in their work also reported more concern about dieting and weight, as reflected on the Drive for thinness subscale of the Eating Disorder Inventory. Results are discussed with regard to situational influences on women's body attitudes and their implications for eating behaviors.     

Investigation of Body Comparison Among Adolescent Girls1

Grade differences in appearance and nonappearance social comparisons, and targets for body comparison were examined in adolescent girls. A model describing potential contributors to, and consequences of, body comparison tendency was examined. Girls (n= 545) completed measuring social comparisons, targets for comparisons, dieting in response to comparisons, body attitudes, eating patterns, psychological variables, height, and weight. Appearance and nonappearance social comparisons increased with age. Girls reported comparing their bodies most frequently with peers and fashion models. Body comparison tendency was significantly predicted by: importance of thinness, internalization of socio‐cultural ideal, friend concern with weight, body image instability, competitiveness, grade, public self‐consciousness, perfectionism, and family concern with weight. Predictors of dieting in response to body comparison were also explored.     

Association of the Thin Body Ideal, Ambivalent Sexism, and Self-Esteem with Body Acceptance and the Preferred Body Size of College Women in Poland and the United States

A study of body satisfaction in 111 Polish and 83 U.S. college women indicated that when Body Mass Index (BMI) was controlled Polish women had larger perceived body sizes and desired a larger body ideal. The Polish sample had higher scores on the Hostile and Benevolent Sexism scales (Glick & Fiske, 1996), whereas the U.S. sample scored higher on the Internalization scale of the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ; Heinberg, Thompson, & Stormer, 1995). Benevolent sexism was related to the acceptance and use of cosmetics in the Polish sample, but not in the U.S. sample. The SATAQ Awareness and Internalization scales were related to low body acceptance in both samples. The Internalization scale was related to discrepancies between the respondents' own bodies and their ideal body types in the U.S. sample but not in the Polish sample. Although the Polish and U.S. samples were more alike than different, sexism was strongly associated with body dissatisfaction in the Polish sample, whereas the SATAQ Internalization scale was strongly associated with body dissatisfaction in the U.S. sample. The results support the hypothesis of globalization of the thin body ideal, illustrate the importance of controlling for BMI in studies of body satisfaction, and demonstrate relationships between sexism, internalization of the thin body ideal, and body dissatisfaction.     

Body dissatisfaction, maternal appraisal, and depressive symptoms in Hong Kong adolescents

Body dissatisfaction, its risk factors and association with depressed mood have been well investigated in the West. However, more studies are needed to examine further the relation between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms and the factors influencing body dissatisfaction in non-Western cultures. The present study examined in a sample of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents the relation between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms, and the relation of maternal appraisal of their adolescent's figure to the adolescent's body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms. We obtained information from 379 boys and 254 girls about their body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms. Their mothers provided information about their appraisal of their adolescent's body shape and size compared to ideal. Body dissatisfaction was related to depressive symptoms in girls (B = 2.58, p <.01), but not in boys (B = -0.08, p >.10). Negative maternal appraisal did not have direct effects on adolescents' depressive symptoms (B = 0.14, p =.75), but the association between negative maternal appraisal and body dissatisfaction was significantly stronger in adolescents whose ideal was smaller than they perceived themselves to be (B = 0.32, p <.01) than those whose ideal was larger than their own perception (B = 0.14, p < .01). Our findings suggest that maternal appraisal had indirect effects on mood, acting through adolescents' body dissatisfaction, and that body dissatisfaction may be a sex-specific risk factor for depression. This study points to the need for testing and adapting programs to reduce body dissatisfaction particularly in girls at risk for depression, and to raise mothers' awareness of the link between their negative appraisals and their adolescents' body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms.     

Body image among adolescent girls and boys: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study of adolescent girls and boys examined the contributions of social (peer appearance context), psychological (internalized appearance ideals and appearance social comparison), and biological (body mass) factors to the development of body dissatisfaction. Students (165 girls and 139 boys) completed questionnaires when they were either in 7th grade or 10th grade and again 1 year later. The results for the boys revealed a singular pathway to body dissatisfaction through internalized commitment to muscularity ideals. The prospective analyses of change in body dissatisfaction among the girls reflected the contributions of appearance conversations with friends, appearance social comparisons, and body mass. There was no evidence of mediation among the boys and limited support for it among the girls.     

Support for a Modified Tripartite Dual Pathway Model of Body Image Concerns and Risky Body Change Behaviors in French Young Men

The aim of the present study was to extend the extant literature by testing a modified Tripartite Dual Pathway Model of the development of male body image and eating concerns among French young men. A sample of 147 French male college students (M _age = 22.09 years-old, range = 18–30) completed a questionnaire assessing sociocultural influences, internalization of the lean/low body fat ideal and the muscular/athletic ideal, appearance comparison, body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction, muscularity enhancement behaviors, drive for thinness, and bulimic symptoms. The revised and final model was an adequate fit to the data, and included separate pathways for muscularity- and leanness-related concerns. This model shows that sociocultural pressures perceived from the media, family members, and peers were associated, through appearance comparison and internalization of the lean and muscular ideal, with body image concerns, disordered eating, and muscularity enhancement behaviors. Results reveal a strong and direct relationship between the internalization of the muscular/athletic ideal and muscularity enhancement behaviors. These findings contribute to the refinement of sociocultural models of the development of body image concerns and unhealthy body change behaviors including disordered eating among men, provide additional support for the usefulness of these models, and extend them to non-English speaking Western contexts.     

Idealized media images and adolescent body image: "comparing" boys and girls

Sociocultural theories of body image suggest that body dissatisfaction results from unrealistic societal beauty ideals, and one way of transmitting these ideals is through the mass media. The present research aimed to examine the effect of exposure to images of idealized beauty in the media on adolescent girls’ and boys’ body image. The participants (595 adolescents) viewed television commercials containing either images of the thin ideal for women, images of the muscular ideal for men, or non-appearance television commercials. Body dissatisfaction was measured before and after commercial viewing. It was found that exposure to idealized commercials led to increased body dissatisfaction for girls but not for boys. Idealized commercials led to increased negative mood and appearance comparison for girls and boys, although the effect on appearance comparison was stronger for girls. Further, participants high on appearance investment reported greater appearance comparison after viewing idealized commercials than those less strongly invested in their appearance. The results suggest the immediate impact of the media on body image is both stronger and more normative for girls than for boys, but that some boys may also be affected.     

Body Image and Sexuality in Women With and Without Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

The purpose of the present study was to investigate relationships among sexual dissatisfaction, body image, and physical and psychological functioning in 54 women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and a demographically similar comparison sample of 29 healthy women. For women with SLE, sexual dissatisfaction was positively correlated with fatigue, depressive symptoms, and feelings of physical attractiveness. No significant differences existed between women with SLE and healthy women with respect to sexual dissatisfaction or body image. Our results suggest that the impact of disease on body image and sexual dissatisfaction are greatest when levels of fatigue and depressive symptoms are high.     

A Body Image Resilience Model for First-Year College Women

The purpose of this study was to investigate Choate’s (2005) theoretical model of body image resilience by examining the association among protective factors and body image. First-year college women (N?=?301) from two universities in the United States (one in the South and one in the Northeast) completed questionnaires assessing five protective factors. The hypothesized model fit the data well. As predicted, high family support; low levels of perceived sociocultural pressure from family, friends, and media regarding the importance of achieving a thin-and beautiful ideal; rejection of the superwoman ideal; positive physical self-concept; and active coping skills contributed to a woman’s overall wellness, which was associated with a more positive body image. Results can inform prevention for young women at risk for eating disorders and suggest specific counseling interventions to improve body dissatisfaction and initial maladaptive eating practices.     

The benefits of expressive writing on sleep difficulty and appearance concerns for college women

The college years represent an important developmental period in the lives of young women, who report health-related difficulties such as sleep disturbance and body/eating concerns. This study explored whether expressive writing (EW) can decrease health-relevant complaints among college women. College females (n?=?111) were randomised into an EW condition (writing about body concerns) or a control writing condition and completed three 15-min writing sessions. Results indicate that participants in the EW condition reported less sleep difficulty and less body-focused upward social comparison at 8-week follow-up, relative to control participants. For individuals who reported higher perceived stress at baseline, the EW condition resulted in less eating disturbance and less social comparison, relative to the control condition. The effect of EW on eating disturbance for those who were high in stress was partially mediated by the change in upward social comparisons focused on one's body. These findings suggest that EW about body image and appearance concerns may positively influence the trajectory of risk for, or resilience against, future complications as a result of sleep difficulty, eating disturbance and body dissatisfaction.     

Body appreciation in adult women: Relationships with age and body satisfaction

The major aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of age on positive body image (operationalized as body appreciation) across the female lifespan. A secondary aim was to examine the effect of age on the relationship between positive body image and body satisfaction. Participants were 158 women aged between 18 and 75 years who completed questionnaire measures of body appreciation and body dissatisfaction–satisfaction. A significant positive linear relationship was found between age and body appreciation; that is, older women had higher levels of body appreciation than their younger counterparts. Although body appreciation was positively correlated with body dissatisfaction–satisfaction across all age groups, the association was weaker for older women. The results contribute to a richer picture of women's body image across the lifespan, as well as confirming positive body image as something beyond the mere absence of body dissatisfaction.     

Threatened masculinity and muscularity: An experimental examination of multiple aspects of muscularity in men

Two studies examined the threatened masculinity theory of male body dissatisfaction, which posits that threats to masculinity result in increased muscle dissatisfaction. In Study 1, a masculinity threat was followed by tasks examining confidence in physical ability and perceptions of current and ideal body shapes. Results showed that men who experienced a masculinity threat reported lower confidence in their physical ability and perceived themselves as less muscular than men who experienced an affirmation of their masculinity. In Study 2, men were asked to report their intention to increase muscularity and their appearance anxiety following a threat to masculinity. Results showed that men reported lower appearance anxiety and drive for muscularity when their masculinity was threatened than when their masculinity was affirmed. This apparent contradiction can be explained by noting that men may be motivated to deny appearance concerns following a threat to masculinity, as such concerns are equated with femininity.     

The frequency, nature, and effects of naturally occurring appearance-focused social comparisons

This research examined the effects of naturally occurring appearance-focused social comparisons on women's affect, body satisfaction, and weight-related cognitions. During their daily activities, women reporting body dissatisfaction (n=53) and women reporting body satisfaction (n=34) recorded their reactions to comparison information. Body-dissatisfied women engaged in more comparisons and a greater proportion of upward comparisons than body-satisfied women. Upward comparisons were associated with an increase in negative affect, body dissatisfaction, and thoughts of exercising for both groups; however, body-dissatisfied women experienced a greater increase in thoughts of dieting following upward comparisons. The daily effects of comparison information on body-dissatisfied women were examined; upward comparisons were associated with increases in daily negative affect, body dissatisfaction, and weight-related cognitions.     

Women's Body Figure Preferences Across the Life Span

Body figure preferences were examined in a sample of 180 women 18 to 59 years old. Participants were presented with Fallon and Rozin's (1985) set of 9 silhouette drawings ranging from very thin to very heavy. Women of all ages rated their current figure as significantly larger than their ideal figure, indicating the presence of body dissatisfaction across the life span. The degree of body dissatisfaction did not vary with age, marital status, educational level, or occupational status. However, in contrast to the younger women's responses and to the results of previous studies, women over the age of 30 years rated their ideal figure as significantly larger than the one perceived as most attractive to men. Therefore, conclusions concerning this issue that are based on studies of college undergraduates cannot necessarily be generalized to other groups of women.