No Evidence That Exposure to Materialistic Advertisements Influence Appearance Overvaluation and Financial Success Overvaluation in the Self-concept

Abstract

Theory and prior research indicate that placing overriding importance on a life domain (e.g., appearance, financial success, health, work, interpersonal relationships) can negatively influence mental and physical health. In particular, people who overvalue appearance have been shown to engage in maladaptive weight-control behaviours and to have eating disorders. Likewise, people who overvalue financial success have been shown to engage in risky gambling and to have disordered gambling. Although the consequences of overvaluing a life domain are palpable, much less is known about its antecedents, which we examined in the current research. According to the Consumer Culture Impact Model, exposure to sociocultural ideals regarding luxury, wealth, and appearance via advertisements influence appearance overvaluation. We proposed that exposure to such sociocultural ideals should also influence financial success overvaluation. We tested the hypothesis that appearance and financial success overvaluation increase in response to viewing materialistic advertisements. First and second year undergraduate students completed self-report measures of appearance and financial success overvaluation in September 2020 (N = 185). They were re-contacted in March 2021 to complete a consumer decision making task. In the task, participants were randomly assigned to a control condition wherein they viewed and compared several non-materialistic advertisements (e.g., pencils, coffee) or to an experimental condition wherein they viewed and compared materialistic advertisements (e.g., champagne, luxury vacation). Afterwards, all participants completed again the same measures of overvaluation. Unexpectedly, linear regression analyses showed that there were no pre-post changes in appearance and financial success overvaluation from before to after exposure to materialistic (relative to non-materialistic) advertisements. Exploratory Bayesian regression analyses revealed support for the null hypothesis. Findings do not support the Consumer Culture Impact Model. Holding materialistic values are discussed as a potential moderator.

The association of perfectionism, health‐focused self‐concept, and erroneous beliefs with orthorexia nervosa symptoms: A moderated mediation model

“…Spangler & Stice, 2001; also see Bossom & Tabri, 2022) were used to assess agreement with beliefs about the perceived importance of appearance for self-views ("How I feel about myself is largely based on my appearance"), feelings ("My moods are influenced by how I look"), interpersonal relationships ("People will think less of me if I don't look my best"), and achievement ("The opportunities that are available to me depend on how I look"). Psychometric analyses indicated that a single factor underlies the BAAS and the selected items all had high factor loadings (see Spangler & Stice, 2001).…”

Momentary appearance focused self‐concept is associated with dietary restraint and binge eating in female university students: An experience sampling study

“…Participants were contacted via email every 2 hours between 9 am and 7 pm for 14 days to complete the 4‐item appearance focused self‐concept scale (Bossom & Tabri, 2022; Yung & Tabri, 2022), among other measures not examined herein (see OSF for these measures). The four appearance focused self‐concept items were drawn from the Beliefs About Appearance Scale (Spangler & Stice, 2001), which we adapted for use in experience sampling.…”