Body-Related Envy: A Social Comparison Perspective in Sport and Exercise

Pila, Eva; Stamiris, Angela; Castonguay, Andrée L.; Sabiston, Catherine M.

doi:10.1123/jsep.2013-0100

Cited by 43 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Although these findings are correlational in nature, they are gleaned from a sample of young women at the peak of their reproductive lifespan, individuals who are perhaps most likely to be affected by intrasexual competition in the mating domain. Our results converge with evidence that envy naturally occurs in women's everyday social comparisons (McKee et al 2013), physical attractiveness comparisons (DelPriore et al 2012;, body comparisons with respect to sports and exercise (Pila et al 2014), and media comparisons affecting cosmetic surgery choices (Nabi and Keblusek 2014). The finding that dispositional envy mediated links between appearance comparison and appearance enhancement motives are consistent with those of Nabi and Keblusek (2014) who found that envy mediated links between attractiveness comparison to media figures (i.e., individuals featured on makeover programs) and cosmetic surgery motives.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…In support of this model, Pila et al (2014) found that among undergraduates, the most frequently reported trigger of body-related envy was a discrepancy in physical comparisons, and that envy predicted reported exercise motivation and behaviors. Moreover, Nabi and Keblusek (2014) found that women's self-reported comparisons with media figures were associated with greater reported intention to undergo risky cosmetic surgical procedures (e.g., botulinum toxin injections, liposuction, breast implants), and that envy (rather than hope or sadness) mediated this relationship; however, this study was limited in its focus solely on extreme appearance enhancement (i.e., cosmetic) procedures, as well as in the cross-sectional nature of its design, leaving unanswered the question of whether envy mediates a more generalized tendency among women to enhance their physical attractiveness in light of making appearance-based social comparisons.…”

Section: Envymentioning

confidence: 48%

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Envy Mediates the Link Between Social Comparison and Appearance Enhancement in Women

Arnocky

Perilloux

Cloud

et al. 2015

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Envy has recently been considered from an evolutionary perspective as an emotion which might motivate compensatory action following unfavorable social comparisons. In two studies, the role of envy in women's motivation to enhance their physical appearance was examined. Study 1 explored the mediating role of dispositional envy on the relationship between social comparison and women's resource spending on appearanceenhancing products, desired weight loss, and tanning intention in a cross-sectional sample of undergraduate women (N=188). Controlling for age and self-perceived mate-value, results revealed that social comparison significantly predicted all three dependent variables, with mediation effects of envy on desired weight loss, consumer spending, and tanning intentions. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings via an experimental social comparison priming procedure. Women (N=90) who made social comparisons toward attractive women in magazine advertisements (N=45) reported greater state envy relative to women viewing advertisements featuring a product only (N=45). Moreover, induced state envy subsequently predicted greater willingness to use facial cosmetics and to take a risky diet pill, and increased positive attitudes toward cosmetic surgery. These results support the role of envy, activated by unfavorable social comparisons, in motivating compensatory competitive appearance enhancement behaviors.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Envymentioning

confidence: 48%

Envy Mediates the Link Between Social Comparison and Appearance Enhancement in Women

Arnocky

Perilloux

Cloud

et al. 2015

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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“…Higher scores represent higher levels of dispositional body envy. The adapted version of this scale has been used in past research [43,44] and shows strong preliminary psychometric properties. 1 The Dispositional Envy Scale [42] was modified by contextualizing all items to focus on the body/physique (i.e., original item of “I feel envy every day” was modified to “When I think about my body/physique, I feel envy everyday”).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the current conceptualizations of social comparison tendencies are restrictive, in that they do not consider associated affect and emotion—components that have been identified as overlooked but highly relevant factors of social comparison processes [31]. For example, Sabiston and Pila [32] characterized concurrent experiences of body-related envy and shame as emotional domains of social comparisons, which uniquely contribute to women’s body-related experiences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body-part compatibility effects are modulated by the tendency for women to experience negative social comparative emotions and the body-type of the model

Pila¹,

Jovanov²,

Welsh³

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

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Although exposure to physique-salient media images of women’s bodies has been consistently linked with negative psychological consequences, little is known about the cognitive processes that lead to these negative effects. The present study employed a novel adaptation of a computerized response time (RT) task to (i) assess implicit cognitive processing when exposed to the body of another individual, and (ii) examine individual differences in social comparative emotions that may influence the cognitive processing of human bodies. Adult females with low (n = 44) or high (n = 23) tendencies for comparative emotions completed a task in which they executed responses to coloured targets presented on the hands or feet of images of ultra-thin, average-size, and above average-size female models. Although the colour of the target is the only relevant target feature, it is typically found that the to-be-ignored location of the target on the body of the model influences RTs such that RTs are shorter when the target is on a body-part that is compatible with the responding limb (e.g., hand response when target was on hand) than on a body-part that is incompatible with the responding limb (e.g., hand response when target was on foot). Findings from the present study revealed that the magnitude of the body-part compatibility effect (i.e., the index of the cognitive processing of the model) was modulated by tendencies for affective body-related comparisons. Specifically, women who were prone to experiencing social comparative emotions demonstrated stronger and more consistent body-part compatibility effects across models. Therefore, women with higher social comparison tendencies have heightened processing of bodies at a neurocognitive level and may be at higher risk of the negative outcomes linked with physique-salient media exposure.

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“…The benefits that come from physical activity are indubitable (Warburton et al, 2006) and contribute to improve people's health, reducing cardiovascular diseases (Myers, 2003;Patel et al, 2013) and diabetes (Brown et al, 2014;Weisser, 2014), preventing several types of cancer and recovering from it (Foucaut et al, 2014;Keimling et al, 2014;Behrens et al, 2014;Gotte et al, 2013;Gonçalves et al, 2014;Buffart et al, 2014), improving musculoskeletal status and disability (Laskowski and Lexell, 2012) and finally potentiating physical attractiveness, well-being (Duda et al, 2014) and social experiences (Pila et al, 2014). The rates of physical activity are different across countries and regions, gender, age and socioeconomic status.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%