The Psychophysiological Consequences of State Self-Objectification and Predictors of Clothing-Related Distress

Abstract

using a within-participants experimental design, the psychophysiological impact of objectified versus non-objectified clothing conditions in a sample of college women (n = 28) was examined. Participants showed significantly lower mean heart rate (hr) in the objectified compared to the non-objectified condition within the first 6 seconds of stimulus onset, indicative of an orienting response (or). the effect persisted at 5 minutes and did not vary as a function of trait self-objectification. results further inform objectification theory, suggesting a psychophysiological mechanism that may explain reduced cognitive processing in objectified states. A secondary aim was to examine prospective predictors of clothing-related distress. weight, thin-ideal internalization, social comparison, and trait self-objectification predicted negative affect, state anxiety, and body preferences following clothing conditions but not hr changes from objectified to non-objectified conditions. Partial regression coefficients suggest maladaptive social comparison predicted negative affect, state anxiety, and a smaller preferred body type following clothing try on. results suggest maladaptive social comparison may play an important role in clothing-related distress. Findings provide further support for social ranking theory.Equating overall feminine worth with a thin, hypersexualized appearance is termed the objectification of women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification reduces women to physical objects

Heart Rate and Affective Reactions to State Self-Objectification as a Function of Gender

“…Therefore, high levels of objectification have the ability to decrease the cognitive performance of women and girls across interpersonal, educational, occupational, and other domains. The current results provide additional evidence for existing literature that has found support for this notion via psychophysiological (Green et al, 2012) and behavioral indices (Fredrickson et al, 1998;Hebl et al, 2004).…”

“…Previous research establishes that attending more readily to one stimulus decreases the cognitive resources available to process competing stimuli and therefore decreases cognitive performance on competing tasks (see Cook & Turpin, 1997). The aim of the present study was to replicate psychophysiological evidence of an increased OR in high-objectification conditions, examine affective differences accompanying these shifts, and extend those findings to men (Green et al, 2012). The next step is to examine whether the observed OR predicts decrements in cognitive performance between lowobjectification and high-objectification conditions.…”

“…If women are cognitively attending more readily to appearance-related cues while in an objectified state (as suggested by the increased OR in the objectified condition at 6 s and 5 min), women may have fewer cognitive resources available for processing other cognitive tasks (Green et al, 2012). This association is important to consider, as girls and women are increasingly objectified across a variety of domains, including academic and occupational realms, with adverse effects on performance (American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 2007).…”

Experimental Studies on State Self-Objectification: A Review and an Integrative Process Model

“…Green et al ( 2012 ) found that, regardless of their level of trait self-objectification, women had a lower mean heart rate when trying on a swimsuit as compared to a tracksuit. This effect is indicative of a prolonged “orienting response” (heightened cognitive processing of a given stimulus; Graham and Clifton, 1966 ).…”

Dress and sex: a review of empirical research involving human participants and published in refereed journals

“…This view is consistent with Prichard and Tiggemann (2005) who said that "wearing tight and revealing clothing actually places women within the objectification limelight" (p. 20). Green et al (2012), in the context of objectification theory, used a dress manipulation to investigate the relationship between state self-objectification and heart rate. They developed a within subjects' experiment for which young women tried on a swimsuit (objectified state) and a tracksuit (non-objectified state).…”