Media effects on expectancies: exposure to realistic female images as a protective factor.
Although frequent exposure to very thin female models is likely the norm for American women, exposure to attractive, average-weight models is likely unusual and may therefore be influential. The authors hypothesized that women at risk for eating disorders who are exposed to attractive, average-weight models would endorse fewer expectancies for reinforcement from thinness than would other women. The hypothesis was confirmed: High-risk women exposed to average-weight model images were less likely to endorse thinness/restricting expectancies than those who were exposed to thin models or to control images. Media exposure to realistic female images appears to lessen the relationship between at-risk status and subsequent endorsement of thinness/restricting expectancies and may therefore disrupt the risk process.
Fister
Suzannah M
SM
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA.
Smith
Gregory T
GT
D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D012307:Risk Factors; D012945:Social Values; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013851:Thinness / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D044465:White People