Reflections in the Mirror: Women’s Self Comparisons to Mannequins and Peers

The fashion industry has been under fire for years for using unrealistic body sizes in the form of stick-thin fashion models to promote the sale of clothing. Typical Western fashion models in today’s society are sized 0-2 and weigh approximately 23% less than the average U.S. woman, who weighs approximately 163 pounds and wears a size 14 (Vesilind, 2009). According to Vartanian (2009), many women suffer from body image self-discrepancies when they compare themselves with others, including fashion models. As such, social comparison has been documented to create negative emotions, such as body dissatisfaction and disappointment (Posavac & Posavac, 2002). Although a number of studies have investigated how an idealized body image in media impacts social comparison among females, no research has explored to what extent comparisons of mannequins to a customer’s self may impact self-image and consumer behavior. Since mannequins serve to show consumers how clothing may look on the human body and consumers may be drawn to the clothing due to the way the clothing fits the mannequin and/or the poise, stature, or grace of the mannequin itself (Schneider, 1997), it should be expected that mannequins would also influence self-image and behavior. Utilizing Social Comparison Theory as the theoretical foundation, this study examines the influencing factors affecting U.S. females\u27 social comparison tendencies and psychological well-being when a female compares her body to that of a mannequin and to other women. Data was collected using an online survey through the use of snowball convenience sampling, yielding 314 usable responses. Results indicate that the use of idealized mannequins in retail stores have a significant impact on social comparison and body dissatisfaction for female consumers. These results suggest that female consumers do indeed compare their bodies to those of mannequins and that the greater the discrepancy between the size of the mannequin and their own size, the more dissatisfied the woman is with her body. This research extends Social Comparison Theory as the findings show women also compare themselves to mannequins. In addition, results of this study show that women who are categorized with a BMI classification of overweight or obese are more likely to compare themselves to other females. Results also show that the top five body parts/characteristics most commonly compared to mannequins and other females are body size, weight, body shape, waist, and legs