Abstract
BackgroundPrevious 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.MethodsAn 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.ResultsAutomatic evaluation was evident: responding to congruent pairs was faster than responding to incongruent pairs. Body image concerns were unrelated to automaticity.ConclusionsThe 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.
Highlights
Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to images depicting the thin female ideal has negative effects on some females' levels of body dissatisfaction
The means in the current experiment for body mass index (BMI), appearance schematicity, thin internalisation, and body dissatisfaction were all within the range reported in previous research with college-aged females [31,51,52,53]
A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), conducted on the absolute difference in latencies between stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) 300 and SOA 1000 trials confirmed that the size of the order effect did not differ significantly between Group 1 and Group 2, F(1, 25) = 2.29, p >
Summary
Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to images depicting the thin female ideal has negative effects on some females' levels of body dissatisfaction. Sociocultural models have linked the development of body image disturbance and eating disorders to exposure to media messages promoting the thin female ideal [3]. A process was either automatic, requiring minimal attentional resources, or controlled, such that the process demands substantial attentional resources [8] This view of information processing has been challenged by more inclusive theories, such as the conditional model of automaticity [9]. Once the process starts it proceeds to completion without conscious guidance [10] This model allows for several types of automatic processing, which are defined by the conditions that are present when the process occurs. Once the process is initiated, it proceeds unintentionally and efficiently to completion, without intention or effort on the part of the individual [10]
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