Experimental Evidence that Activewear Retail Imagery Elicits Physiological, Attentional andSelf-reported Markers of Body Image Threat in Women

Abstract

Online apparel retail imagery is a prominent threat to women’s body image, particularly segments such as activewear which emphasize the value of women’s bodies. In a within-subjects experiment, we exposed women (N = 128) to imagery randomly selected from activewear, casualwear and homewares websites and measured their gaze behavior, physiological arousal, as well as subjective mood and body image ratings. Exposure to activewear retail imagery elicited significantly lower body image ratings, higher negative mood, and lower positive mood compared to the other website imagery conditions. Physiological arousal was significantly higher for both apparel imagery conditions compared to the homewares imagery condition. Body biased gaze behavior was significantly higher for the activewear imagery condition compared to the casualwear imagery condition. Notably, trait body shame moderated the self-reported but not the physiological experimental effects, such that women with higher trait body shame experienced stronger adverse changes in their body image and mood ratings following activewear exposure. Correlational results revealed that self-reported experimental responses to the activewear imagery were strongly associated with self-objectification, appearance comparison, disordered eating and body image coping attitudes. As such, exposure to popular apparel imagery may play a role in maintaining maladaptive body image attitudes and behaviors in women.