Results

Undergraduate/GraduateCategory:Undergraduate

DegreeLevel:Bachelor

AbstractID#1345

AbstractBody image concerns have become excepEonallyprevalent,impairingwomen’sabilitytocorrectlyidenEfyhealthybodyweightsaJermediaexposure.Thepurposeofthisstudywastoanalyzehowwomen’spercepEonsofhealthybody typesare influencedby thecostsofbeingoverweight, the posiEve valence of being thin, and theextent of internalizing media ideals. Eight computer-generated female body imageswere createdwithBodyMass Indices (BMI) ranging from 18 to 35. ParEcipants(16 women 18–22 years old) were asked to rate theimages, presented randomly over a series of trials,before and aJer viewing a webpage of swimsuitadverEsements. ParEcipants rated how “typical” theimages looked on a scale from 1 (thinnest) to 9(heaviest). Higher perceived cost of being overweightwas associated with raEng thinner bodies as more“typical”followingtheswimsuitadverEsements(r=-.635,p<.009). Higher perceived benefit of being thin wasassociatedwithmoreextremedieEngbehavior(r=.775,p<.001). These preliminary findings support thecorrelaEon between media exposure and skewed bodyimage.

Introduc1onThemedia issaturatedwithcultural idealsdepicEngthinnerwomenasmoreacracEve,moredesirableandmoresuccessful,whichadverselyimpactswomen’sbodypercepEon.ThisphenomenonnegaEvelyaffectswomen’sabilitytocorrectlydisEnguishhealthybodyweights.Inpreviousstudies,SEceetal.examinedtheeffectsofbodydissaEsfacEonandhowbody imagedistorEonscauseapersontoviewtheirbodytobe larger than it is inreality(SEceetal.2002).ThisstudyacributedbodydissaEsfacEontohavestemmedfromsocioculturalpressures likemedia, family,etc. (SEceetal.).Rhodesetal. tooktheSEcestudy further by invesEgaEng whether exposure to distorted bodies can changepercepEons of acracEveness. In many Western cultures, acracEveness translates tobeingthin(Rhodesetal.2005).ThestudyconcludedthatthemostacracEvebodywasthinner than the normal body aJer exposure (Rhodes et al.). Inmore recent studies,Glauert et al. examined how women from Western cultures cope with both bodydissaEsfacEonandtheeffectsofperceptualexposuretobodyideals(Glauertetal.2009).This study found that women’s body percepEons were impressionable to these bodyidealsbecausehigher ratesofbodydissaEsfacEonwererecordedaJermediaexposure(Glauert et al.).With consideraEon to the previous studies on body dissaEsfacEon andperceptualexposuretobodyideals,thepurposeofourstudywastoanalyzetheextenttowhichmedia idealscan impactsocialnormsrelatedtobody image,andtoexaminetheinfluence it has on women’s percepEons of a healthy body weight. Our study alsoexaminedhowmuchhavingthis idealbodyshowninmediawouldaffecttheirlives.Weexamined theperceived costsof beingoverweight and theperceivedbenefitsof beingthin.

Methods

ConclusionTheresults fromthisstudy leantowardsthenoEonthatwomen’spercepEonsofbody imageareinfluencedbytheperceivedcostsofbeingoverweight.Ifonebelievesthatsocialstatusorapprovalmaydecreaseifone’sweightincreases,thenathinnerbodytypeisconsideredmoretypicalaJermediaexposure;mediaexposurethusskewingthepercepEonofbodyimages.TheposiEvevalenceofbeingthinalsoinfluencespercepEonbecauseofthebeliefthatbeingthinismore acracEve and more successful. If perceiving benefits of being thin is correlated withextremedieEngbehavior,womenexposedtoidealizedbodiesinmediamightbemorelikelytoengage in unhealthy disordered eaEng behaviors. The internalizing of beauty and idealisEcnorms has a negaEve influence on the way women perceive themselves and others, evencomputergeneratedsEmuli.ThesepreliminaryfindingssupportthecorrelaEonbetweenmediaexposureandskewedbodyimage.

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Mediaexposureimpairspercep1onofbodyimageOlesnycky,Olenka1;Asi,Suhair2;Cutrim,Paula1;Hartley,Ludger3;McDonald,Daniel4;Dubois,RussellHeyden5;Rodgers,Rachel5;Lynn,Spencer4

Figure1:ExamplesEmulicreatedaccordingtotheparEcipant’sselfdescribedpersonalcharacterisEcs.

ParEcipants viewed these eight sEmuli 40 Emes, in random order, andcategorized the sEmuli from a scale of 1 to 9, where 1 is thinnest and 9 isheaviest.ParEcipantscompletedthreedifferentrunsortrialsofthepercepEon-basedtask.AJerrun1,parEcipantswereprimedwithavisualsearchtask.

The visual search task was implemented to measure the influence of theidealized body type seen in media on the parEcipant’s overall body imagepercepEon. The task forced parEcipants to look carefully through a mockwebpageofaVictoria’sSecretcatalogwithafewpagesofswimsuitsbyaskingdetailedquesEonsaboutthebathingsuits.

AJer thepriming, theparEcipants completed the samepercepEon-based taskduring run2.TheraEngsof run1and2were recordedandcomparedagainsteachothertomeasuretheeffectsofthepriming.

Figure2:AnexampleoftheprimingimagestheparEcipantswereexposedtointhevisualsearchtask.

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Thesurveydatawasanalyzedagainstthechangeinrun1versusrun2inwhatsEmuluswasmost“typical”.

Fromtheresultsobtainedfromrun1andrun2ofthepercepEon-basedtask,achangeaJertheprimingwasnoEcedinwhichsEmuliwereratedmost“typical”.

AcorrelaEonintheanswersbetweentwosubscalesofthesurveywasdetermined.

ReferencesGlauertR,RhodesG,ByrneS,FinkB,GrammerK.2009.BodyDissaEsfacEonandtheEffectsofPerceptualExposureonBodyNormsandIdeals.Interna1onalJournalofEa1ngDisorders.Volume42:443-452.RhodesG,WinklerC.2005.PerceptualAdaptaEonAffectsAcracEvenessofFemaleBodies.Bri1shJournalofPsychology.Volume96:141-154.SEceE,ShawHE.2002.RoleofBodyDissaEsfacEonintheOnsetandMaintenanceofEaEngPathology:ASynthesisofResearchFindings.JournalofPsychosoma1cResearch.Volume53:985-993.

Figure3:ExampleoftheSwimsuitPrimingEffectFor this parEcipant, sEmulus 3was rated asmost “typical”during run 1. AJer priming, sEmulus 2 was rated as most“typical” in run 2. Thus, aJer the primingwith the VictoriaSecretbathingsuittask,themost“typical”bodytyperaEngdecreased from sEmulus 3 to sEmulus 2, showing that athinner sEmuli was perceived as more typical aJer beingexposedtomediaimagesofidealbodytypes.

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Figure 4: Higher perceived cost of being overweight wasassociated with raEng thinner bodies as more “typical”following the swimsuit adverEsements (r=-.635, p<.009).AJer theVictoriaSecretSwimsuitpriming,parEcipantswhoperceived high negaEve costs of being overweight on thesurvey rateda thinner sEmulusasmost “typical”.A thinnersEmuluswasperceivedasmorenormalonaverageaJerthepriming if the parEcipant believed that there are negaEveoutcomes to being overweight, like “having less friends” or“lesslikelytogetajob.”

Figure 5: Higher perceived benefit of being thin wasassociatedwithmoreextremedieEngbehavior(r= .775,p<.001). The parEcipants who marked that there are higherperceivedbenefitstobeingthinalsorecordedthattheyhavedietedinthepast6monthstoloseweight.Forthissubscaleofthesurvey,theparEcipantsratedona5-pointscaletheirpercepEon of the benefits of thinness across a number ofareas,includingsocial,professional,andrelaEonshipsuccess.

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Each parEcipant was administered a survey with quesEonsfalling into eighteen subscales. One subscale looked at theperceived benefits of being thin. This subscale asked theparEcipants to rate how strongly they agreed with phrasessuch as “If I were thinner I would be happier.” Anothersubscale looked at the perceived costs of being overweight,and incorporated phrases like “If Iwere facer Iwould havelessfriends”.

Eight computer-generated female body images with BodyMassIndices(BMI)rangingfrom18to35werecreatedusingmodelmydiet.com to match that parEcipant’s self-reportedpersonalcharacterisEcs,suchashairstyle,colorandskintone.

1.DepartmentofBehavioralNeuroscience2.DepartmentofBiology3.DepartmentofPsychology,BangorUniversity

4.DepartmentofPsychology5.DepartmentofAppliedPsychology