Journal of Research in Personality 34, 278286 (2000)

doi:10.1006/jrpe.1999.2281, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

BRIEF REPORT
The Impact of Media Images of Super-Slender Women on
Womens Self-Esteem: Identication, Social Comparison, and
Self-Perception
Kathy Wilcox and James D. Laird
Clark University
Some women enjoy examining media depictions of extremely slender models,
while others nd such depictions produce feelings of inadequacy. The two reactions
appear to reect differences in the impact of bodily information in generating feel-
ings. Forty-one women were randomly assigned to view pictures of slender or nor-
mal-weight models and to respond to scales measuring body esteem and self-esteem.
The importance of personal, bodily cues in feeling processes was also determined
by inducing the women to adopt facial expressions of emotion and assessing whether
their feelings changed to match their expressions. Among women whose emotions
were based on personal cues, looking at slender models produced lower self-esteem
and satisfaction with their weight as compared to women viewing more robust mod-
els, apparently reecting social-comparison processes. Among women unresponsive
to personal cues, looking at slender models increased self-esteem and satisfaction
with their weight, apparently due to identication. 2000 Academic Press
Key Words: self-perception; body image; self-esteem; social comparison; identi-
cation.
Many commentators have noted the potential impact of the media on wom-
ens feelings about their own bodies (e.g., Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Shaw &
Waller, 1995). In magazines, TV, and movies, women see models who are
increasingly and, for most women, unrealistically slender. Contemporary
with a shift toward thinner and thinner models in advertising and entertain-
ment has come a rise in eating disorders (Silberstein, Perdue, Peterson, &
Kelly, 1986; Garnkel, Goldbloom, Davis, Olmstead, Garner, & Halmi,
1992) and a pervasive dissatisfaction among women about their body size
(Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1984; Polivy & Herman, 1987; Rich-
Address correspondence and reprint requests to James D. Laird, Frances Hiatt School of
Psychology, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610. E-mail: jlaird@clarku.edu.
278
0092-6566/00 $35.00
Copyright 2000 by Academic Press
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
BRIEF REPORT 279
ins, 1991). In short, to many observers, the media appear to be unwittingly
engaged in a campaign to make women feel badly about themselves.
This presumed impact of the media on their audiences contains an apparent
paradox. If watching a movie or reading a magazine makes a woman feel
unhappy, why would she continue? The effect on the magazines readership
would seem to be as slimming as the diet claims that often appear on pages
opposite the pictures of slender models. And yet, the magazines prosper.
One obvious solution to this paradox is that only some women are dissatised
by the media depictions, while others nd them enjoyable or at least indiffer-
ent. The question would be, then, Which women would be so affected and
why?
To answer that, we need to look more carefully at how models might
affect the observer. When a woman looks at a picture of another woman,
two processes might possibly occur. One is identication. By identifying
with a slim woman in a picture, a reader might achieve at least a brief mo-
ment of pleasure as she imagines that she too is, or could be, as slim and
attractive as the model. The other process is social comparison (Richins,
1991). A woman looking at the model in a picture might consider how she
compared with the model, with the model providing a standard. Considering
most models, and most readers, this is likely to be a relatively disheartening
comparison (Shaw & Waller, 1995).
The negative impact of media depictions of slenderness seems, then, to
depend on the occurrence of social comparison. A number of studies have
in fact demonstrated that when women are shown either still photographs
or TV commercials with super-slender models they report shifts toward neg-
ative moods (Heinberg & Thompson, 1995; Pinhus, Toner, Ali, Garnkel, &
Stuckless, 1999; Stice & Shaw, 1992) and increases in various measures of
dissatisfaction with their bodies (e.g., Crouch & Degelman, 1998; Ogden &
Mundray, 1996; Posavec, Posavec, & Posavec, 1998). A few studies have
also examined general self-esteem, but the results have been somewhat con-
icting, with a few studies nding reductions in self-esteem (Irving, 1990),
although sometimes only in particularly susceptible groups (Henderson-
King & Henderson-King, 1997; Posavec et al., 1998). Others found no ef-
fects of media on general self-esteem (Cusamano & Thompson, 1997; Sed-
don & Berry, 1996). In sum, considerable evidence supports the proposition
that media depictions of slender models do cause bad moods and diminished
body satisfaction. However, none of these studies have demonstrated positive
effects of viewing slender models or any explanation for the puzzle identied
above.
Social comparison and identication differ in many ways, but one impor-
tant difference is certainly in the salience and importance of ones sense of
self. In social comparison, one is actively aware of ones own properties,
which are precisely what are being compared to the standard. In contrast,
280 BRIEF REPORT
during identication one must be relatively unaware of how one really is in
order to adopt the temporary identity of the other.
This difference is analogous to an individual difference dimension that is
often discussed in the context of a self-perception theory of feelings. Self-
perception theory argues that our feelings are information about ourselves,
our actions, and the contexts in which we act (Bem, 1972; Ryle, 1949; Witt-
genstein, 1953). Like the more specic Jamesian theory of emotion (James,
1884), self-perception theory holds that common sense is wrong: we do not
smile because we are happy, but rather are happy because we smile. In this
view, we know ourselves in essentially the same way that others know us,
by perceiving our own actions in the contexts in which we act.
1
A substantial amount of research has conrmed the basic self-perception
prediction that if people are induced to act as if they felt something, many
do indeed report the corresponding feeling (Laird & Bresler, 1990, 1992).
However, people also differ reliably and consistently in the degree to which
their feelings about themselves are determined by self-produced (Laird &
Berglas, 1975) or personal cues from their behavior or situational cues
from their circumstances. For example, some people feel happy when they
smile and angry when they frown, feel romantically attracted when they gaze
into a strangers eyes, believe a counterattitudinal speech they have deliv-
ered, and feel hungry in response to stomach contractions. In contrast, others
are unresponsive to these personal cues and instead respond to external, so-
cial denitions of how they should feel. They feel hungry in response to the
knowledge that it is dinnertime, change their attitudes in response to confor-
mity pressure, and feel what they believe is appropriate for their circum-
stances (see Laird & Bresler, 1992 for a review).
Returning to the impact of the media, the two potential effects of viewing
unusually thin models seem likely to depend on the degree to which the
viewer relies on personal or situational cues. A woman who relies on per-
sonal cues will be confronted with a model who is especially slim, while at
the same time basing her feelings about herself on her actual behavior and
appearance. She would be expected, then, to be led toward social-comparison
processes and experience discomfort. In contrast, the woman who relies most
on situational cues seems likely to have no conicting feelings based on her
actual appearance and can enjoy the brief pleasure of identication.
These two hypothetical processes are analogous to two ways of reacting
1
Bem (1972) was actually a bit more cautious, inserting the condition that we infer our
states from our behavior only . . . to the extent that internal cues are weak, ambiguous, or
uninterpretable. . . . (Bem, 1972, p. 2). Ryle and Wittgenstein argue that there are no internal
cues which might lead to feelings and that such a condition is unnecessary. We agree with
Ryle and Wittgenstein for both empirical and conceptual reasons (Laird & Bresler, 1992).
BRIEF REPORT 281
to placebo manipulations that have been identied in earlier research (Dun-
can & Laird, 1980). In this research, mildly snake-phobic participants were
given placebos that ostensibly would make them feel either more relaxed or
more tense. Then they were asked to approach a live snake. Participants
who were more responsive to situational cues showed conventional placebo
effects: if told they would be more relaxed, they approached the snake more
readily, and if told they would be tense, they avoided the snake. In contrast,
the participants more responsive to personal cues showed the opposite re-
sponse, a reverse placebo effect. It was as if they had said to themselves
that they should be more relaxed, but were acutely aware of their bodies
physiological responses, and so they concluded that they must be even more
afraid than they normally would be. For them, the information about the
pills supposed effects was compared with their sense of their own bodily
response to produce a kind of social-comparison contrast effect.
Of course, neither social comparison nor identication are directly observ-
able. Instead they are known principally by their effects. When confronted
with another person with superior attributes, a devaluation of self is taken
to be evidence of upward social comparison (Wood, 1989), just as the occur-
rence of the reverse placebo effect was evidence of a comparison process.
Similarly, identication is inferred from the impact of positive gures on,
for example, attitude change (Wilson & Sherrell, 1993). In this study we
similarly rely on the indirect implication of changes in evaluations of self.
If the predicted individual differences due to awareness of personal cues
occur, some condence will accrue to our assumption that the differences
reect social comparison and identication.
In sum, we expected that participants who were more responsive to per-
sonal cues, as identied in the expression-manipulation procedure, would
feel distressed by looking at conventionally slim models. In contrast, those
who were more responsive to situational cues would experience positive,
pleasant feelings.
The most convenient procedure for determining participants responses to
personal and situational cues is the expression-manipulation procedure. This
involves inducing people to adopt facial expressions of emotion and then
asking them how they feel. Participants who are more responsive to personal
cues report feeling what their faces are expressing. In contrast, participants
who are more responsive to situational cues are unaffected by this procedure
(e.g., Duclos, Laird, Schneider, Sexter, Stern, & Van Lighten, 1989).
Our specic hypothesis was, then, that participants whose emotional
feelings were affected by their expressions would be disheartened by view-
ing slender models, while those whose feelings were unaffected by their
expressive behavior would feel better immediately after viewing slender
models.
282 BRIEF REPORT
PROCEDURE
The participants were 41 women volunteers between the ages of 18 and 35.
The participants were told the study was attempting to discover the features of models that
made them memorable to consumers, and they were led to expect a later memory test that in
fact never occurred. The participants were randomly assigned to see pictures of either the thin
(N 21) or normal-sized women (N 20).
The picture sets consisted of 10 advertisements for clothing from standard womens maga-
zines, which showed the usual exceptionally slender models, and 10 pictures from specialized
womens catalogs advertising clothing for more amply furnished women. The women in these
pictures were, in fact, approximately normal sized and did not look overweight, though clearly
heavier than the conventional models. The backgrounds of the pictures were removed, leaving
only the complete gure of the woman. The pictures were selected from a much larger pool
of pictures that had been rated by 11 judges for attractiveness. The nal selections were chosen
to equate the attractiveness of the models. The judges also classied the pictures as slender
or heavier, and only pictures unanimously assigned to one category or the other were used.
The participants rst viewed the 10 pictures of their assigned type under the impression
that they would later have a memory test. They then lled out measures of self-esteem and
body esteem and reported on their feelings while looking at the pictures. The self-esteem
measure (Rosenberg, 1965) consisted of nine self-descriptive statements to which the partici-
pant could respond on a 4-point scale consisting of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and
Strongly Disagree. The items were scored so that higher scores indicated more positive self-
concept.
The Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984) contains three subscales, reecting con-
dence about ones weight, physical condition, and sexual attractiveness. Each item is rated
from 1, indicating strong negative feelings, to 5, indicating strong positive feelings, and the
subscale scores are sums.
Following the picture viewing and response to these two scales, the participants also pro-
vided a brief free-description of their feelings while looking at the pictures. These descriptions
were scored by a judge blind to the picture condition of the participants, who received scores
of 1, indicating a negative experience, 2 if it was neutral, and 3 if the experience was positive.
Finally, cue response group was established by a procedure (for details, see Laird, Alibozak,
Davainis, Deignan, Fontanella, Hong, Levy, & Pacheco, 1994) in which participants adopted
frown and smile expressions and then rated their feelings of eight emotions. Participants re-
sponded by making a slash on 4-
1
/2-inch linear scales, labeled at one end Dont feel at all
and at the other Feel very strongly. The critical emotion ratings were those for Happy and
Angry. Participants who reported feeling happier when smiling and angrier when frowning
were assigned to the personal cue group (N 19). The others were assigned to the situational
cue group (N 21).
RESULTS
Each of the dependent measures, self-esteem, the three Body Esteem
subscale scores, and the overall judgements were analyzed in two-way
ANOVAS in which picture group (thin or normal sized) and cue response
group (personal vs situational) were the independent variables.
Not surprisingly, analyses of two of the Body Esteem subscales, measur-
ing concerns about sexual attractiveness and physical condition, revealed
no signicant effects. The third, condence about ones weight, showed a
signicant interaction between cue response group and whether the pictures
BRIEF REPORT 283
they had viewed were of heavier or thinner models, F(1, 37) 4.66, p
.05. Those who were less responsive to personal cues and had viewed the
thin pictures were more condent about their own weight (M 27.6) than
those who viewed the heavier pictures (M 24.7). In contrast, the partici-
pants who were more responsive to personal cues were much less content
with their weight if they viewed the thin pictures (M 21.5) than if they
viewed the heavier pictures (M 30.8).
A similar pattern of means was observed for the participants free-descrip-
tions of their reactions to the pictures, although only the main effect of pic-
ture type was signicant F(1, 37) 6.54, p .05. The participants who
were more responsive to personal cues and had viewed pictures of thin mod-
els described their experience as much less enjoyable (Thin M1.2, Heavy
M 2.2). One of the participants described her reaction in terms that proba-
bly were shared by the others, They (the pictures) made me very conscious
of my own body. I compared myself to them and felt slightly jealous and
inadequate because they were thinner, tanner, had bigger chests, etc.
Perhaps most surprising, the results for the self-esteem scale showed the
same interaction pattern, F(1, 37) 4.71, p .05. Participants who were
in the situational cue group reported higher self-esteem if they viewed the
thin pictures (M 32.1) than if they viewed the heavier pictures (M
27.7). The participants in the Personal cue group showed the reverse patterns,
reporting less self-esteem if they viewed the thin pictures (M 24.8) than
if they viewed the heavier pictures (M 28.1).
DISCUSSION
Viewing pictures of conventionally slender models had the expected ef-
fects of inducing some participants to feel unhappy, to become more con-
cerned about their own weight, and even to report reduced self-esteem. These
effects occurred among the women who had been identied as more respon-
sive to personal cues. These were the women whose feelings are based on
their own properties and actions and who presumably were more actively
aware of their own real weight and used the information from the pictures
as a context in which to compare themselves unfavorably. These are, of
course, the women who probably look at conventional, slender models as
briey as they can and who do not enjoy most womens magazines.
In contrast, the women who were less responsive to personal cues felt
somewhat better after viewing the slender models. Identifying with the mod-
els, they might be expected to be quite enthusiastic observers of conventional
advertising fare. Note that in most of these analyses, these two effects can-
celled each other, so that if the two groups of participants had not been
distinguished, no impact of the pictures would have been apparent.
The women participants were not, of course, aware of the purpose of the
experiment. Any one woman viewed only one type of picture and was un-
284 BRIEF REPORT
aware that another sort existed, at least as part of the experiment. Since the
dependent measures were obtained only after the picture-viewing, and their
purpose was disguised, we can be condent that the effects were genuine
consequences of the viewing conditions and not due to experimental demand.
Another aspect of the results further rules against an experimental demand
explanation. Although the procedure for assessing response to personal cues
was not very heavily disguised, the results required a combination of knowl-
edge that no participant could have acquired. Participants would have needed
to know how their response on the expression-manipulation procedure com-
pared to the responses of the other participants, to know what group they
would be assigned to, and then how each group was expected to behave.
The latter would have been particularly difcult, since the expected response
was also a function of which experimental group the participants were as-
signed to. Note too that the response to the pictures occurred before the
expression-manipulation procedure, so the experimenter was blind to half
the information necessary for experimenter bias to occur. In short, the results
do not seem attributable to any kind of experimenter bias and must instead
reect real processes of self-perception and probably social comparison and
identication.
Our initial assumption that social comparison and identication were re-
lated was supported in these results, albeit somewhat indirectly. Whether the
women felt better or worse after viewing slender models was clearly a func-
tion of the degree to which their sense of self was rooted in their personal
properties and bodily activities. Less certain is whether these differences
produced differences in identication and social comparison, neither of
which was measured directly. However, the results certainly suggest it would
be protable to explore further whether identication and social comparison
are, in some sense, opposite ends of a dimension dened by the role of per-
sonal cues in self-awareness.
That identication and social comparison are in some sense opposites does
not mean that any individual could not or would not use both. Rather, as is
the case with personal and situational cues, in most circumstances people
probably do use both or, more commonly, one or the other depending on
the circumstances. However, in those cases where the situational and cultural
prescriptions conict with the evidence from the persons own actions and
body, people must choose and may be expected to do so consistently.
The effects of picture viewing were both signicant and reasonably large:
20% shifts in self-esteem, for example. Furthermore, the exposure to the
pictures was very briefleang through 10 photographs of models would
barely get a reader to the table of contents in most slick magazines. To make
the presentations more comparable, we also removed the background from
all the pictures. Given the attention that appears to be paid to the setting and
framing of advertising copy, we would imagine that the impact of the full
BRIEF REPORT 285
ads would have been diminished, therefore. Consequently, our stimuli were
brief and degraded, and still they were effective in changing self-esteem
and body satisfaction. Repeated, protracted, complete exposures to standard
advertising copy might be expected to have the kinds of more serious effects
that other commentators have identiedentertaining one part of the audi-
ence at the expense of demoralizing a substantial portion of the remainder.
There is a temptation to assume that these two effects balance, so that the
cause of some womens unhappiness is the source of pleasure for others,
and one womans distress is justied by anothers delight. However, the two
effects are probably not comparable in magnitude or duration, since the plea-
sures of identication seem certain to be eeting, lasting no longer than the
magazine is open.
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