Searching Out the Ideal: Awareness of Ideal Body Standards Predicts Lower Global Self-esteem in Women
Does awareness of female body ideals affect women's global self-esteem? We measured awareness of ideal standards for beauty via two approaches. As one approach, participants (55 undergraduate women) self-reported their general propensity to be aware of society's thin ideal standard.
As a second approach, we measured visual attention orienting to ideal standards; we covertly measured participants' eye movements to peers' purported ideal standards. Self-reported awareness predicted lower baseline self-esteem; this relationship was mediated by internalization of the thin
ideal. Awareness as assessed through attention orienting to peers' ideal standards predicted decreases in global self-esteem, above the effects of self-reported awareness, internalization, and actual measures of physical fitness. Implications for awareness of ideal standards and the media's
portrayal of the thin ideal are discussed.
Keywords: Awareness; Body image; Eye tracking; Self-esteem; Thin ideal
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Psychology Department, New York University, New York, NY, USA 2: Psychology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA 3: Psychology Department, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA
Publication date: 01 January 2013
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