Week 3 Summary article Thin ideals in music television: a source of social comparison and body
dissatisfaction
Introduction
•Widespread body dissatisfaction among women, particularly with body shape and weight, has been
documented in many studies.
•High levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating generally are attributed to sociocultural
factors. Current societal standards for female beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of
thinness, and thinness at such a level as to be increasingly impossible for most women to achieve.
•Although beauty ideals can be transmitted in many way, the mass media are probably the most
powerful conveyors of sociocultural ideals. They play an important causal role in body dissatisfaction
and disorder eating.
•The casual role played by the media has been demonstrated by studies that manipulated and
assessed the immediate impact of exposure to thin idealized media images.
•Despite television’s more pervasive influence, relatively fewer studies have employed televised
images of thinness. Nevertheless, the few have likewise found increases in state body dissatisfaction
or negative mood following exposure to television commercials. However, no study has investigated
the effect of thin idealized images as portrayed in television program content on mood or body
satisfaction.
•The current study investigates the impact of thin ideals presented in one of the most popular forms
of entertainment for young people, namely, music television. Music television prgrams target
audiences between the age of 12-34. Viewers typically report watching between half an hour and 2
ours of these programs per day. Content analyses of music videos have shwn that the portrayal of
women is decidedly sexist in orientation with high levels of sex-role stereotyping. In particular, the
physical appearance of women is emphasized and they are commonly depicted as thin and
attractive, usually provocatively or scantily clad, and often involved in implicitly sexual or subservient
behaviour.
•Experimental research in other areas has demonstrated that viewers may be affected by the
content of music videos. Specifically, exposure to an hour of rock music videos that contained violent
scenes resulted in high school viewers becoming more accepting of violence. Other research has
found that even a brief exposure to music videos with sex-role stereotypic or antisocial themes alters
viewers’ social judgments.
•The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of thin ideals portrayed in
music videos on mood and body dissatisfaction. A secondary aim was to examine the underlying
processes by which media images might affect body dissatisfaction.
•They suggest that the process of social comparison may provide the mechanism by which exposure
to media images induces negative effects. We reason that acute exposure to the thin ideal images in
music videos will elicit appearance concerns and evoke comparison processing in vulnerable women.
•In 1954, festinger’s social comparison theory suggested that individuals’ drive for self-evaluation
can be met by comparison with similar others. Since then, a number of other motives have been
identified for engaging in social comparison, namely self-improvement and self-enhancement. In
particular, the motive for self-improvement leads to the selection of a superior target, resulting in
an upward social comparison, which can have negative effects on mood and self-esteem.
•They predicted that both thin idealized images and social comparison constructions would elicit
more comparison processing, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction and that comparison
processing would mediate the effects of image type on body dissatisfaction.
Discussion
•The current study examined the effects of acute exposure to thin ideal body images in music videos
dissatisfaction
Introduction
•Widespread body dissatisfaction among women, particularly with body shape and weight, has been
documented in many studies.
•High levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating generally are attributed to sociocultural
factors. Current societal standards for female beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of
thinness, and thinness at such a level as to be increasingly impossible for most women to achieve.
•Although beauty ideals can be transmitted in many way, the mass media are probably the most
powerful conveyors of sociocultural ideals. They play an important causal role in body dissatisfaction
and disorder eating.
•The casual role played by the media has been demonstrated by studies that manipulated and
assessed the immediate impact of exposure to thin idealized media images.
•Despite television’s more pervasive influence, relatively fewer studies have employed televised
images of thinness. Nevertheless, the few have likewise found increases in state body dissatisfaction
or negative mood following exposure to television commercials. However, no study has investigated
the effect of thin idealized images as portrayed in television program content on mood or body
satisfaction.
•The current study investigates the impact of thin ideals presented in one of the most popular forms
of entertainment for young people, namely, music television. Music television prgrams target
audiences between the age of 12-34. Viewers typically report watching between half an hour and 2
ours of these programs per day. Content analyses of music videos have shwn that the portrayal of
women is decidedly sexist in orientation with high levels of sex-role stereotyping. In particular, the
physical appearance of women is emphasized and they are commonly depicted as thin and
attractive, usually provocatively or scantily clad, and often involved in implicitly sexual or subservient
behaviour.
•Experimental research in other areas has demonstrated that viewers may be affected by the
content of music videos. Specifically, exposure to an hour of rock music videos that contained violent
scenes resulted in high school viewers becoming more accepting of violence. Other research has
found that even a brief exposure to music videos with sex-role stereotypic or antisocial themes alters
viewers’ social judgments.
•The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of thin ideals portrayed in
music videos on mood and body dissatisfaction. A secondary aim was to examine the underlying
processes by which media images might affect body dissatisfaction.
•They suggest that the process of social comparison may provide the mechanism by which exposure
to media images induces negative effects. We reason that acute exposure to the thin ideal images in
music videos will elicit appearance concerns and evoke comparison processing in vulnerable women.
•In 1954, festinger’s social comparison theory suggested that individuals’ drive for self-evaluation
can be met by comparison with similar others. Since then, a number of other motives have been
identified for engaging in social comparison, namely self-improvement and self-enhancement. In
particular, the motive for self-improvement leads to the selection of a superior target, resulting in
an upward social comparison, which can have negative effects on mood and self-esteem.
•They predicted that both thin idealized images and social comparison constructions would elicit
more comparison processing, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction and that comparison
processing would mediate the effects of image type on body dissatisfaction.
Discussion
•The current study examined the effects of acute exposure to thin ideal body images in music videos
