Idealized Female Beauty, Social Comparisons, and Awareness Intervention Material

Abstract

Abstract. Previous research indicates that exposure to the idealized thin media standard of female beauty can contribute to body dissatisfaction, negative self-perception, depressed mood, and disordered eating. Importantly, studies have revealed that social comparison processes underlie this negative media effect: Women routinely compare themselves with the encountered mass-mediated thin ideals, which, in turn, elicits negative consequences. While there are a multitude of studies on this topic, little is known about how this negative effect can be counteracted. We tested whether watching an awareness intervention video highlighting the artificial nature of mass-mediated idealized female beauty reduces social comparison processes in a subsequent situation. As a replication of previous research, we found that exposure to the awareness intervention material reduced social comparison processes. Supplementary analysis revealed that this effect was mediated through a change in the ideal self: Watching the awareness material elicited a more realistic perception of the specific body that individuals ideally wanted to possess. This more realistic ideal-self standard, in turn, reduced social comparison processes.

A Biopsychosocial Model for Understanding Media Internalization and Appearance Dissatisfaction Among Preadolescent Boys and Girls

“…Consistent with our second hypothesis (H2a), our findings indicated that, among girls, earlier pubertal timing was associated with increased media internalization over time. Given that early maturing girls experience greater body image discrepancy than on-time peers (McCabe, Ricciardelli, & Finemore, 2002), the direct pathway from pubertal timing to media internalization supports our suggestion that individuals with higher levels of body image concerns may compare their appearances with media models as a means to set personal standards for self-improvement (e.g., Arendt et al, 2017; Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). This self-improvement hypothesis aligns with previous research, indicating that negative body evaluations are associated with more appearance-related comparisons among women (Blechert, Nickert, Caffier, & Tuschen-Caffier, 2009) and internalization of media-promoted appearance ideals among girls (Rodgers et al, 2015).…”

“…Negative affect, in turn, induces a motivation to reduce the actual-ideal discrepancy. One way to reduce self-discrepancy is through pushing the actual self in the direction of the ideal and/or ought self (Higgins, 1987) by setting self-improvement goals (e.g., Arendt, Peter, & Beck, 2017). In line with this, Knobloch-Westerwick (2015) indicated that individuals can reinforce their self-concept and minimize actual-ideal discrepancies such as appearance self-discrepancies through selectively attending to particular media content.…”

Body-, Eating-, and Exercise-Related Comparisons During Eating Disorder Recovery and Validation of the BEECOM-R

“…Two other studies investigating social comparison during the ED recovery process, found that the tendency to engage in virtual comparisons (i.e., via social media) with others who had been in ED treatment was related to increased ED psychopathology and ED-related clinical impairment (Saffran et al, 2016), and that individuals who attended a hospital-based treatment program engaged in more social comparison than age-matched controls without a clinical ED history (Bachner-Melman, Zontag-Oren, Zohar, & Sher, 2018). In non-clinical samples, social-comparison behaviors have been reduced through awareness campaigns administered in experimental settings (Arendt, Peter, & Beck, 2016). Despite being a malleable, proximal correlate of eating pathology, body-, eating-, and exercise-related social comparison is rarely measured in recovering samples, as researchers have yet to psychometrically evaluate and modify any existing measures of social comparison for use with this population.…”

Die Rolle der Medien bei Entstehung, Verlauf und Bewältigung von Essstörungen

“…In den Untersuchungen werden meist junge Studentinnen in Stichprobenauswahl nach Verfügbarkeit („convenience samples“) mit idealisierten Körperdarstellungen (etwa Bilder von Werbemodels, vgl. [ 10 , 11 ]) konfrontiert und danach zu ihrer Körperzufriedenheit und ähnlichen Konzepten, darunter oft auch die Neigung zu gestörtem Essverhalten, befragt. Als theoretische Grundlage fungieren dabei die „Theorie sozialer Vergleichsprozesse“ [ 12 , 13 ] sowie der „Kultivierungsansatz“ [ 14 – 16 ].…”