Women, social media, and physical appearance anxiety: The effect of sociocultural attitudes

• Authors: Evita March , Louise Tenaglia , Danielle L. Wagstaff

Abstracts

EN

In this report, we tested if viewing the body as an object (BAO; two forms: thin and curvaceous) and body as a process (BAP) on social media, and sociocultural attitudes regarding social media, directly affected women’s state physical appearance anxiety. Women (N = 249; Mage = 23.81; SD = 5.68) completed an online experiment where they were randomly assigned to view BAO-thin, BAO-curvaceous, and BAP images. Viewing BAO-curvaceous images had no effect on women’s state physical appearance anxiety. However, viewing BAO-thin and BAP images decreased women’s state physical appearance anxiety. Further, this effect was stronger for women with greater internalization and awareness of body ideals conveyed by social media (i.e., high sociocultural attitudes). We conclude that sociocultural attitudes regarding social media may buffer the adverse effects of viewing BAO-thin images.

Keywords

EN

body image; sociocultural attitudes; social media; body as a process; body as an object

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 17-25

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Evita March

• Federation University Australia

author

Louise Tenaglia

• Aruna Psychology

author

Danielle L. Wagstaff

• Federation University Australia

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Identifiers

DOI

10.21697/sp.2022.22.2.02

Biblioteka Nauki

29433579