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Experimental analysis of the impact of body comparison on non-clinical women
Abstract
Background and objectives
Two experimental studies examined the impact that body comparison has on women's body satisfaction and self-esteem. The two studies differed in the use of a human comparator or an avatar (non-human) comparator. The independent variables were the type of body comparison (upward, downward and neutral) and the perceived personality of the comparator.
Methods
Each study used a within-participant design. Participants compared themselves to images of women or avatars (previously rated as ‘attractive’, ‘neutral’ or ‘unattractive’), with an accompanying ‘positive’ or negative’ personality descriptor. Participants rated their body satisfaction and self-esteem after each image.
Results
Upward comparison resulted in negative effects for the participant compared to downward and neutral conditions, but downward comparison's impact was only found for human images. The described personality of the image had a more complex impact when using human images, but was still relevant for avatars.
Limitations
The sample for this study was lacking in diversity. Compliance within the experimental tasks was not strictly monitored. The use of a within-subject design might have allowed some participants to deduce the nature of the study.
Conclusions
These findings provide causal evidence for the theorised effects of body comparison on body satisfaction self-esteem. Upward comparison has especially problematic outcomes, even causing negative effects when comparing to a non-human avatar. Downward comparison had positive effects, but only for human images. Furthermore, personality played some moderating role in these outcomes. Social comparison theory needs to be reviewed in light of these findings, and practical implications are discussed.
... As reported in previous research (e.g., Laker & Waller, 2022), there is currently no method that allows calculations for a repeated measures design with multiple withinsubject factors. We therefore ran a more conservative sensitivity power analysis by treating "language" as a between factor using G*Power 3.1.9.7 (Faul et al., 2009). ...
Positive attitudes toward regional/minority languages are an essential precondition to language maintenance/revitalization. We investigate implicit and explicit attitudes toward Welsh and English and their relationship with childhood and adolescent age exposure among adult Welsh speakers from northwest Wales. Results indicate that implicit and explicit attitude constructs diverge and therefore bear differentially on language maintenance/revitalization. Specifically, comparing speaker data from the Language and Social Background Questionnaire with results from two independent studies, employing the Attitudes towards Languages (AToL) Scale and an Implicit Association Task respectively, we show that the implicit measure reveals a positive correlation between attitudes and exposure in primary school age. Conversely, the AToL returned no statistically significant factors, suggesting differential sensitivity of the explicit and implicit measures. We argue that an understanding of both types of attitude constructs, and attending to exposure levels especially as they relate to intergenerational transmission, is necessary to implement an effective language maintenance/revitalization strategy.
Body positivity refers to a movement, popularized on social media, that encourages the normalization and acceptance of bodies diverging from sociocultural ideals, specifically within marginalized communities. Previous studies suggest that briefly viewing body positive social media content may lead to increased body satisfaction and positive affect in young women relative to thin-ideal and appearance-neutral content. Diminished body functionality and appearance change due to chronic illness poses a unique challenge to positive body image in young adults living with chronic illness. Typical body positive social media content may not be useful for this community since chronic illnesses are often not outwardly depicted, so the current study aimed to examine the state effects before and after viewing body positive social media content in a sample of young women (N=201) with at least one self-reported chronic illness. Participants (Mage = 29.4, SD = 6.74; 79.2 % white) were randomly assigned to view one of two sets of 10 images: chronic illness body positive and typical body positive. Participants completed a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) pre- and post-stimuli exposure. Findings from repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant interaction between time and group for negative affect (F(1198) = 4.402, p =.037) and broad conceptualization of beauty (F(1199) = 4.288, p =.040), such that those exposed to the chronic illness stimuli reported a larger reduction in negative affect and an increase in conceptualization of beauty beyond the non-chronically ill ideal post-exposure. Thus, exposure to body positive social media content inclusive of chronic illness may be more useful in stabilizing affect and promoting greater positive body image within the community. These findings highlight the importance of inclusive body positive portrayals in terms of dimensions beyond weight and shape to account for the effects of diminished body functionality.
Purpose
This study reports on the development and validation of a brief and widely applicable measure of body comparison (the Comparison of Self-Scale—CoSS), which is a maintaining feature of eating disorders.
Methods
A sample of 412 adults completed the CoSS, an existing measure of aspects of body comparison, and eating pathology and associated states. Test–retest reliability was examined over 2 weeks.
Results
Exploratory factor analysis showed that 22 CoSS items loaded onto two factors, resulting in two scales—Appearance Comparison and Social Comparison—with strong internal consistency and test–retest reliability.
Conclusions
In clinical terms, the CoSS was superior to the existing measure of body comparison in accounting for depression and anxiety. Given that it is a relatively brief measure, the CoSS could be useful in the routine assessment of body comparison, and in formulating and treating individuals with body image concerns. However, the measure awaits full clinical validation.
Level of evidence
Level 3.
Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors are common among college women, yet only a subset of this population develops clinically significant disordered eating symptoms during college. Appearance-based social comparisons, particularly those made to others with "better" bodies (i.e., upward appearance comparisons), have demonstrated concurrent relationships with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Little is known about the value of these comparisons for predicting the development of eating pathology, however.
The present study examined the predictive value of upward appearance comparisons, as well as established risk factors (e.g., body dissatisfaction, negative affect), for the onset of clinically significant eating pathology over one college semester. College women (N = 454) completed validated self-report measures at the beginning of one semester, and again nine weeks later.
Women who were newly above the clinical threshold for eating pathology at follow-up (n = 31) exhibited stronger baseline tendencies toward upward appearance comparisons than women who were below the threshold at both time points. In contrast, women who were already above the clinical threshold at baseline scored higher on established risk factors.
These findings suggest that the extent of upward appearance comparison may be useful for identifying college women at particular risk for developing clinically significant disordered eating symptoms. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2013;).
Despite the popular belief that the thinstandard of female attractiveness currently presented inthe media is a primary contributor to the high level ofconcern with body weight among women, experimental studies have not shown that exposure to mediaimages increases women's weight concern. Threeexperiments are reported demonstrating that exposure tomedia images does often result in increased weightconcern among women, but that body dissatisfaction, astable personality characteristic, is a moderator ofvulnerability to this effect. Although most womenreported higher weight concern when exposed to media vs. neutral images, women with low initial bodydissatisfaction did not. In addition, this researchsuggests that negative effects on weight concern mayresult from even passive exposure to media images, but that exposure to realistic attractivenessis less likely to cause increased weight concern. Theethnicity of the participants in these studies reflectedthat of the local population, with over 90% white. The nonwhite participants primarily belonged toone of the following groups; Asian, Pacific Islander,Latino.
One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for 8 standard statistical tests: (1) the difference between independent means, (2) the significance of a product-moment correlation, (3) the difference between independent rs, (4) the sign test, (5) the difference between independent proportions, (6) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (7) 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and (8) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation.
The human psyche is profoundly shaped by its cultural milieu; however, few studies have examined the dynamics of cultural influence in everyday life, especially when it comes to shaping people’s automatic, implicit attitudes. In this quasi-experimental field study, we investigated the effect of transient, but salient, cultural messages—the pop-cultural phenomenon of celebrity “fat-shaming”—on implicit anti-fat attitudes in the population. Adopting the “copycat suicide” methodology, we identified 20 fat-shaming events in the media; next, we obtained data from Project Implicit of participants who had completed the Weight Implicit Association Test from 2004 to 2015. As predicted, fat-shaming led to a spike in women’s (N=93,239) implicit anti-fat attitudes, with events of greater notoriety producing greater spikes. We also observed a general increase in implicit anti-fat attitudes over time. Although these passing comments may appear harmless, we show that feedback at the cultural level can be registered by the “body politic.”
Body checking is used widely among clinical and non-clinical individuals. It is suggested to be a safety behavior, reducing anxiety initially but potentially enhancing eating and shape concerns in the longer term. However, there is little causal evidence of those negative effects. This experimental study tests the potential negative impact of body checking. Fifty non-clinical women took part in a study of the effects of body checking in naturalistic settings. Each checked their wrist size every 15 minutes for eight hours on one day, then did not check the next day (order randomized). The impact on eating cognitions and body dissatisfaction was measured at the end of each day, and levels of change in those characteristics were also associated with eating pathology levels. Body checking did not result in more negative general eating attitudes or body dissatisfaction, but did result in a significant increase in a specific cognition that is hypothesised to be relevant to eating pathology - the fear of uncontrollable weight gain following eating. This impact was greater among those women with more negative existing eating attitudes. These findings add to the small experimental evidence base, demonstrating negative causal links between body checking and eating pathology. The findings need to be extended to clinical groups, but support the use of existing cognitive-behavioral methods to reduce body checking behavior.
Heinberg and Thompson (1995) demonstrated that females exposed to a compilation of media images (commercials) reflecting the current societally sanctioned standards of thinness and attractiveness experienced greater mood and body image disturbance than females who viewed a neutral, nonappearance-related control video. Social comparison has been offered as one mechanism for the negative outcomes of such media-based exposures. In the current study, social comparison was manipulated by creating three instructional conditions: comparison, distraction, and neutral. Instructional set did not differentially affect recall of appearance or nonappearance aspects of either an appearance-related collection of commercials or a nonappearance video (e.g., Heinberg & Thompson, 1995). However, participants in the comparison condition self-reported a greater degree of self-to-model comparison than participants in the distraction of neutral conditions. A marginally significant three-way interaction between condition, tape, and time emerged for a measure of appearance dissatisfaction, suggesting that comparison participants' body images were more negatively affected than the other groups. Tape by Time interactions also emerged for measures of anger, anxiety, and depression, revealing that greater distress was associated with the viewing of media images reflecting the current societal bias towards thinness and attractiveness. Dispositional level of internalization of societal values regarding attractiveness moderated women's reactions to the two video presentations. The findings are discussed with regard to sociocultural models of body image and possible implications for interventions for appearance-related distress.
The fat talk literature is meager in terms of offering theoretical explanations for women's self-disparaging communication. The research presented here sought to establish a relationship between three prominent body image theories – self-discrepancy theory, social comparison theory, and objectification theory – and fat talk by proposing body dissatisfaction as a potential mediating mechanism. Young adult women (N = 201) completed an online questionnaire. As predicted, results revealed that body dissatisfaction significantly mediated the relationships between weight discrepancy, upward comparison, body surveillance and fat talk. Effect size estimates indicated that the size of each indirect effect was medium in magnitude.
The effects of viewing media-portrayed idealized body images on eating, self-esteem, body image, and mood among restrained and unrestrained eaters were examined. Study 1 found that restrained eaters (i.e., dieters), but not unrestrained eaters, rated both their ideal and current body sizes as smaller and disinhibited their food intake following exposure to idealized body images. These results suggest that restrained eaters are susceptible to a “thin fantasy” brought about by viewing ideal body images. Study 2 found that strengthening thinness attainability beliefs can further enhance the thin fantasy demonstrated by restrained eaters following exposure to idealized body images. Study 3 examined whether demand characteristics moderate these effects of media-portrayed idealized body images. As predicted, when explicit demand characteristics were present, participants reported feeling worse following exposure to thin models. The complexities of the media’s role in the development and maintenance of body dissatisfaction and dieting behavior are discussed.
Weight and shape concerns in college women are epidemic. Understanding the role of the thin ideal in the development of such concerns is critical for designing prevention programs. This study examines the association between the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ; Heinberg, Thompson, & Stormer, 1995), a measure of internalization and awareness of the thin ideal, and eating and body image concerns in college women. Seventy undergraduates completed questionnaires on eating symptomatology, body image and demographics. In general, inernalization, but not awareness, of the thin ideal was associated with eating and weight concerns. In two-way analysis of body mass and dichotomized SATAQ internalization scores, body mass moderated the effects of internalization, with overweight women high in internalization having the most body image concerns. Prospectively, SATAQ-internalization scores predicted increasing drive for thinness over the school year in a subsample of women. Future research should explore the moderating effects of weight on outcomes related to internalization of the thin ideal.
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This research examined the effects of naturally occurring appearance comparisons on women's affect, body satisfaction, and compensatory cognitions and behaviors. Using ecological momentary assessment, women with high body dissatisfaction and eating pathology (EPHB), high body dissatisfaction (HB), or low body dissatisfaction (LB) recorded their reactions to appearance-focused social comparisons. EPHB and HB women made more upward appearance comparisons than LB women. All women experienced negative emotions and cognitions after upward comparisons, including increased guilt, body dissatisfaction, and thoughts of dieting. EPHB women were most negatively affected by comparisons; they experienced more intense negative emotions, more thoughts of dieting/exercising, and an increase in eating-disordered behavior after upward comparisons. HB women experienced more negative affective consequences and thoughts of dieting than LB women. Results are consistent with social comparison theory and provide important information that may be used to inform eating disorder treatment and prevention efforts.
What are the impacts of creating an avatar replicating the actual self versus an avatar projecting the ideal self on game players' avatar-self connection? This study leveraged an avatar-creating game (Mii Channel) within a video-game console (Wii) in a controlled, randomized study. The results of a two-group comparison (actual self-priming vs. ideal self-priming) between-subjects study (N = 76) demonstrated the significant main effect of self-priming via avatar (Mii) creation on avatar-self connection. Game players who were primed to create a Mii reflecting the ideal self felt greater avatar-self connection than those primed to create a replica Mii mirroring the actual self. Theoretical values and implications for a burgeoning body of research on the "malleable self" and the multidimensionality of the self-concept in avatar-based interactive media are discussed.
This study examined social comparisons, appearance related comments and contingent self-esteem, and their relationships with body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance in young adult women. Importantly, the role of both positive and negative appearance related comments, and upward and downward comparisons, were investigated. A self-report questionnaire assessing each of these variables was completed by one hundred and ninety-six women aged 18-35. A higher frequency of negative comments and contingent self-esteem were associated with higher upward comparisons, and more positive comments were associated with higher downward comparisons. Overall, social comparisons were shown to be more important than verbal commentary and contingent self-esteem. More upward comparisons and less downward comparisons uniquely predicted higher body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance. In addition, negative appearance comments were found to be more salient than positive comments. Negative comments and contingent self-esteem uniquely predicted more eating disturbance but positive comments were not a predictor of body dissatisfaction or eating disturbance. Longitudinal studies are now required to establish the direction of these relationships and to more fully examine the interplay among the factors. In addition, given that our study only assessed self-reported social comparisons, our findings need to be validated against experimental methods.
The social and societal pressures to be thin that many women experience are widely believed to negatively affect their body image. The fact that this view is not reflected in traditional body image measures prompted the development of this multidimensional self-report instrument of body weight and shape concerns that is contextually grounded in young women's life experiences. Semistructured interviews with high school and university women (N = 16) were used to develop the questionnaire items. Students were asked about their experiences with controlling the size and shape of their bodies, and the expectations and evaluations of others (e.g., parents, friends, intimate partners) regarding their body shape. The initial 101-item pool was derived from a content analysis of the interview transcripts and was administered to 287 female university students. Exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed five underlying dimensions, specifically, (a) Weight dissatisfaction, (b) Slimness as quality of life, (c) Interpersonal messages regarding slimness, (d) Societal value of thinness, and (e) Valuing exercise.
One expression of the core psychopathology of eating disorders is the repeated checking and avoidance of shape or weight. Two studies are reported. The primary purpose of the first was to describe the phenomenology of such body checking and avoidance. The aim of the second was to compare body checking and avoidance in women with and without a clinical eating disorder.
In Study 1, 64 female patients with clinical eating disorders participated in a semistructured interview assessing the features of body checking and avoidance. In the second study, a self-report questionnaire was used to compare body checking and avoidance in women with and without a clinical eating disorder (n = 110).
The majority (92%) of the patients in Study 1 checked their bodies to assess their shape or weight and this was associated significantly with eating disorder symptoms. In Study 2, the clinical group had significantly more body checking and avoidance than the comparison group, and there was a strong association between eating disorder psychopathology and body checking and avoidance.
These findings support the view that body checking and avoidance are direct expressions of the overevaluation of shape and weight. Further work is needed to determine whether these expressions contribute to the maintenance of eating disorders.
This research examined the effects of naturally occurring appearance-focused social comparisons on women's affect, body satisfaction, and weight-related cognitions. During their daily activities, women reporting body dissatisfaction (n=53) and women reporting body satisfaction (n=34) recorded their reactions to comparison information. Body-dissatisfied women engaged in more comparisons and a greater proportion of upward comparisons than body-satisfied women. Upward comparisons were associated with an increase in negative affect, body dissatisfaction, and thoughts of exercising for both groups; however, body-dissatisfied women experienced a greater increase in thoughts of dieting following upward comparisons. The daily effects of comparison information on body-dissatisfied women were examined; upward comparisons were associated with increases in daily negative affect, body dissatisfaction, and weight-related cognitions.
The current study was an investigation of the self-schema and social comparison theories of body dissatisfaction. The social comparison manipulation consisted of exposure to one of three levels of comparison figure: upward, downward, or no comparison. Two different imagery exercises served to prime either a participants' appearance self-schema, or a non-appearance schema. Participants completed state measures of body image and mood at pre- and posttest. Results indicated no significant interaction between priming and social comparison and no significant main effect for priming. However, there was a significant effect of social comparison, such that those in the downward comparison condition showed an increase in body satisfaction and positive mood. Results are discussed in the context of self-schema theory and social comparison, and suggestions are given for future research that might further shed light on these theoretical approaches for understanding body dissatisfaction.
This study investigates the effect of social comparisons with media models on women's body image based on either self-evaluation or self-improvement motives. Ninety-eight women, for whom appearance was a relevant comparison dimension, viewed advertisements that did, or did not, feature idealised models, after being prompted to engage in self-evaluation or self-improvement comparisons. The results indicate that, when focusing on self-evaluation, comparisons with thin models are associated with higher body-focused anxiety than viewing no model advertisements. In contrast, when focusing on self-improvement, comparisons with thin models are not associated with higher body-focused anxiety than viewing no models. Furthermore, women's general tendency to engage in social comparisons moderated the effects of self-evaluative comparisons with models, so that women who did not habitually engage in social comparisons were most strongly affected. It is suggested that motive for social comparison may explain previous inconsistencies in the experimental exposure literature and warrants more careful attention in future research.