Automatic evaluation of body-related words among young women: an experimental study

Background: Sociocultural models of body image disturbance have linked the development of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders to exposure to media messages depicting the unrealistically slender female physique. Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to images depicting the thin female ideal has negative effects on some females’ levels of body dissatisfaction. Much of this research, however, has utilised relatively long stimulus exposure times; thereby focusing on effortful and conscious processing of body-related stimuli. Relatively little is known about the nature of females’ affective responses to the textual components of body-related stimuli, especially when these stimuli are only briefly encountered. The primary aim of the current research was to determine whether young women automatically evaluate body-related words and whether these responses are associated with body image concerns, including self-reported levels of appearance schematicity, thin internalisation, body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint. Methods: An affective priming task was used to investigate whether females automatically evaluate body-related words, and whether this is associated with self-reported body image concerns. In a within-participants experimental design, the valence congruence of the prime and target pairs was manipulated. Participants selected body words as primes in Experiment 1 (N = 27), while normatively selected body words were primes in Experiment 2 (N = 50). Each prime was presented briefly, followed by a target word which participants judged as “good” or “bad”. The dependent variable was response latency to the target. Results: Automatic evaluation was evident: responding to congruent pairs was faster than responding to incongruent pairs. Body image concerns were unrelated to automaticity. Conclusions: The findings suggest that brief encounters with body words are likely to prompt automatic evaluation in all young women, and that this process proceeds unintentionally and efficiently, without conscious guidance. The potential implications for higher order, conscious information processing is discussed

Objectification in Virtual Romantic Contexts: Perceived Discrepancies Between Self and Partner Ideals Differentially Affect Body Consciousness in Women and Men

The current study examined whether exposure to sexually objectifying images in a potential romantic partner's virtual apartment affects discrepancies between people's perception of their own appearance (i.e., self-perceptions) and their perception of the body ideal that is considered desirable to a romantic partner (i.e., partner-ideals). Participants were 114 heterosexual undergraduate students (57 women and 57 men) from a northeastern U.S. university. The study used a 2 (Participant Gender) x 2 (Virtual Environment: Sexualized vs. Non-Sexualized) between-subjects design. We predicted that women exposed to sexually objectifying images in a virtual environment would report greater discrepancies between their self-perceptions and partner-ideals than men, which in turn would contribute to women's body consciousness. Findings support this hypothesis and show that perceived discrepancies account for the relationship between exposure to sexually objectifying images and body consciousness for women but not men. We also found gender asymmetries in objectification responses when each component of perceived discrepancies, i.e., self-perceptions versus perceptions of a romantic partner's body ideal, were examined separately. For men, exposure to muscular sexualized images was significantly associated with their self-perceptions but not their perceptions of the body size that is considered desirable to a romantic partner. For women, exposure to thin sexualized images was significantly associated with their perceptions that a romantic partner preferred a woman with a smaller body size. However, exposure to these images did not affect women's self-perceptions. Implications for gender asymmetries in objectification responses and perceived discrepancies that include a romantic partner's perceptions are discussed

Influencia de los factores que definen el modelo estético corporal en el bienestar de las mujeres jóvenes afectadas o no afectadas por anorexia y bulimia

OBJETIVO DEL ESTUDIO: El modelo estético corporal actual viene determinado por diferentes factores personales y socioculturales, siendo necesario profundizar su influencia e identificar las dimensiones en que se agrupan. METODOLOGÍA: Para eso, se evaluó la actitud de una muestra de 95 mujeres (saludables y enfermas de anorexia y bulimia) frente a la repercusión de su bienestar en determinados factores relacionados con el modelo estético corporal. En segundo lugar, se realizó un análisis factorial de Componentes Principales para determinar las dimensiones en que se agrupan. RESULTADOS Y CONCLUSIONES: Concluímos, que son tres las dimensiones de influencia extraídas: primera: "la dimensión social y de autoestima", segunda: "la dimensión sociocultural relacionada con los medios de comunicación" y tercera: "la dimensión de influencia del compañero y la aceptación". A pesar de ser mayor la influencia de los factores personales, familia, amigos y compañero, la "dimensión sociocultural mediática" es la que determina una diferencia mayor entre ambos grupos