1
DITTMAR
Media and the Negative Impact on Body Image
How do "Body Perfect" Ideals in
the Media have a Negative Impact
on Body Image and Behaviors?
Factors and Processes Related
to Self and Identity
Helga Dittmar
University of Sussex, U.K.
Body image has emerged as a core aspect of mental and physical well-being. Informed
by sociocultural theory, a rapidly growing body of research addresses the
question of whether body perfect ideals in the mass media are a core risk factor
for negative body image, particularly in women. This work has moved beyond
assessments of whether or not negative exposure effects occur so that significant
progress has been made toward identifying diverse factors that make individuals
more or less vulnerable to body perfect ideals in the media. This special issue
examines and extends this work in various ways. It offers a critical analysis of
the evidence base for a causal link between media and body image. It presents
new findings which support a qualified and complex picture of media effects or
influences, highlighting the importance not only of individual differences, but
also psychological processes, related to self and identity. Thus, it aims to contribute toward a more theoretically informed understanding of vulnerability factors through a focus on self, identification with the thin ideal, and related processes.
It is hard to overstate the significance of body image as a research
area at the interface of social and clinical psychology. Body dissatisfaction,
the experience of negative thoughts and esteem about one’s
body, is linked to a range of physical and mental health problems,
including disordered eating, obesity, body dysmorphic disorder,
depression, or low self-esteem (cf., Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002; Polivy
& Herman, 2002; Thompson, 2004). It is also implicated in the increasing
use of body-shaping behaviors with potentially unhealthy
consequences, such as cosmetic surgery, unbalanced diet regimes,
or steroid abuse (cf., Cafri et al., 2005; Grogan, 2008). Thus, it can be
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argued that body image is a core aspect of physical and mental wellbeing.
The growing prominence and recognition of body image as a
conceptual and empirical research area in its own right is reflected
in the number and close temporal proximity of special issues in the
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, starting with a special section
on media and disordered eating in 2001, and then followed
by two full special issues devoted to body image in 2004 and 2005.
Now we have the third special issue with a distinctive focus on the
role of "body perfect" ideals in the mass media as a source of body
dissatisfaction.
Prospective and longitudinal studies confirm that dissatisfaction
with one’s body, or negative body image, can be understood as one
of the most consistent and significant precursors of negative selfperception,
negative emotional states, and unhealthy body-related
behaviors (cf., Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008). Given this significance,
it becomes imperative to improve our understanding of risk factors
and psychological processes that lead to body dissatisfaction. Sociocultural
models have provided the dominant framework in this
research area (cf., Levine & Harrison, 2004; Stice, 1994; Thompson,
Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999), which focus on unrealistic
"body perfect" ideals transmitted and reinforced by various social
influences. Of these, the mass media are seen as a particularly
potent and pervasive source of influence, evidenced by a virtual explosion
of studies on media exposure and body dissatisfaction. Almost
all of this research has been carried out with women and girls,
for whom the "body perfect" ideal is ultra-thin, and whose media
models are typically underweight. The new extreme of dress size
"zero" represents a starvation-level Body Mass Index (< 16) well in
the range of anorexia (Dittmar, 2008). Recently, there are also studies
with men and boys, for whom the media has started to portray
an increasingly muscular body ideal (e.g., Pope, Olivardia, Gruber,
& Borowiecki, 1999). "Body perfect" ideals are communicated early
to children, for example through dolls such as Barbie, and girls as
young as 5 to 7 years reported lower body esteem and a greater
desire for a thinner body directly after exposure to such doll images
(Dittmar, Halliwell, & Ive, 2006).
The effects of exposure to these media images are complex—as
we will also see in this special issue—but before addressing this
topic, it is worth referring to three meta-analyses, both to highlight
the growth of research studies, as well as to provide some overMEDIA
AND THE NEGAT IVE IMPACT ON BODY IMAGE 3
all assessment of whether negative media effects do occur or not.
A recent meta-analysis on men reported a significant association
between negative body image and the consumption of ideal male
media images in 15 correlational studies, as well as more negative
body image after direct exposure to such images in 10 experiments,
with effect sizes of d = -.19 and d = -.22 respectively (Barlett, Vowels,
& Saucier, 2008). For women, an earlier meta-analysis of 25 experimental
studies found that they felt worse about their body after exposure
to thin ideal images than other stimuli, identifying an effect
size of d = -.31 (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002). A recent extension
included 49 experiments and 28 correlational studies, again finding
that exposure to thin ideal media is linked to women’s body image
concerns, with effect sizes of d = -.28 for body dissatisfaction and
d = -.30 for eating behaviors and beliefs (Grabe et al., 2008). Thus,
the support for a general negative effect of "body perfect" media on
body image is robust, consistent with sociocultural theory. Yet, in
terms of strength, these effect sizes are small to moderate only, reflecting
research findings which show that media effects are absent
among particular subgroups of women (for a review, see Levine &
Harrison, 2004), or even positive for others (e.g., Joshi, Herman, &
Polivy, 2004).
These empirical findings mark a conceptual shift toward identifying
vulnerability factors that make individual women more or less
responsive to media influences (moderators) and starting to examine
the psychological processes (mediators) though which media affect
body image (Dittmar, 2005; Tiggemann, 2005). Indeed, whereas
research has only just started to examine men, significant advances
have been made with respect to women, particularly in terms of the
number and diversity of moderators examined. Studies on psychological
processes are far fewer, but have highlighted that women’s
responses to the thin ideal cannot simply be explained by processes
of upward social comparison with a media image perceived as
superior (e.g., Bessenoff, 2006). Like all positive research developments,
they raise intriguing issues, some of which are particularly
pertinent for this special issue and can help to locate it with respect
to the previous literature.
The complexity of new research findings suggests that we need
a more qualified appraisal, and this special issue aims to provide
a critical analysis of the state of the art with respect to what we do
know about the media’s effect on body image and related behav4
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iors, and an indication of remaining, and promising, research gaps.
This is explicitly done in the opening article, which provides a narrative,
up-to-date review of this burgeoning research area (Levine
& Murnen, 2009, this issue). The review is structured along a number
of criteria designed to provide a grid for evaluating the extent
to which the media can be seen as a causal risk factor for negative
body-related outcomes in girls and women. In addition, each of the
following articles extends recent research, which contributes further
to a critical assessment of the media effects literature, but also
suggests novel directions.
The second article develops and tests a media effects model that
has women’s internalization of the thin ideal as a vulnerability factor,
and activation of discrepancies between actual and ideal body
as a psychological process through which media images lead to increased
body-focused negative affect (Dittmar, Halliwell, & Stirling,
2009). Thus, it investigates both a moderator and a mediator in order
to predict simultaneously for whom and how body dissatisfaction
is likely to occur in response to thin ideal media.
The next article is concerned with providing an explanation for
apparently contradictory findings where, in contrast to greater body
dissatisfaction after exposure to thin images, some women report
positive, self-enhancing effects (Tiggemann, Polivy, & Hargreaves,
2009, this issue). They propose two different psychological processes
that can occur when women view thin media models, evaluating
themselves with respect to the model (comparison processing)
and identifying with, "being," the model (fantasy processing). The
reported experiment manipulates the nature of processing through
instructions, and measures processing directly, when women view
advertisements featuring either thin models or products. Changes
in mood and body dissatisfaction from pre- to post-exposure are
examined as a function of image type, instructional set, and selfreported
processing, which makes it possible to assess in a single
study whether the nature of processing is crucial to producing negative
or positive media effects, and whether effects are different for
general mood as compared to body-specific outcomes.
The final article is concerned with improving our understanding
of factors that make it more or less likely that individuals aspire
to, and internalize, the sociocultural "body perfect" ideals so prominently
displayed in the media (Vartanian, 2009, this issue). It addresses
this question through focusing on the nature of individuals’
MEDIA AND THE NEGAT IVE IMPACT ON BODY IMAGE 5
self-concept, examining the novel proposal that individuals may
be more likely to seek out and adopt such external norms of ideal
beauty as part of their own identity if they lack a clearly defined
sense of self. Links between self-concept clarity, internalization of
"body perfect" ideals, body image and eating concerns are examined
in both women and men.
In addition to the unique contributions of each of these articles,
there is a further distinctive feature of this special issue when it is
considered as a whole. The previous research literature provides a
diverse list of vulnerability factors, but this does not easily contribute
toward the development of theoretically informed frameworks
for understanding media effects and the ways individuals relate to
"body perfect" ideals. This special issue aims to make a start toward
the development of such a framework by examining, and highlighting,
factors and processes that can be conceptualized in terms of
individuals’ self-concept or identity. Indeed, it grew out of a symposium
proposal on media and body that had psychological processes
related to self and identity as its focal theme. Identity can be defined
as the subjective concept (or representation) that a person holds of
him- or herself (Vignoles, Regalia, Manzi, Golledge, & Scabini, 2006).
Although, traditionally, body image has not been conceptualized in
this way, it can be defined as an integral part of identity, given that
it constitutes the subjective concept a person holds of their body as
part of their self-representation (Dittmar, 2008; Halliwell & Dittmar,
2006).
Such a conceptualization may be useful for a qualified understanding
of media effects and their complexity, because it can offer
two things. First, it can incorporate a distinction between actual and
ideal bodily self. Thus, in addition to a person’s thoughts and evaluation
of their body as it is, it can encompass notions of the ideal
body individuals aspire to and strive for, as representing a part of
their ideal self-concept. The construct of thin-ideal internalization
can be understood in identity-related terms if it is seen as the extent
to which an individual incorporates the sociocultural "body perfect"
ideal into their ideal bodily self. Thus, what is of crucial importance
is the extent to which "body perfect" media ideals become such a
central aspect of personal identity. Second, if we draw on theories
that attempt to link self-concept and affect, such as Self-Discrepancy
Theory (e.g., Higgins, 1987), it becomes possible to theorize negative
emotions about one’s body after exposure to thin images as a
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consequence of the particular aspect of the bodily self-concept that
is salient for a person. In other words, media images may be processed
very differently, depending on which self-related standpoint
women adopt with respect to the thin ideal during exposure. Given
the extremity of the ultra-thin ideal for women, if it becomes their
ideal self, there is likely to be a large and psychologically salient gap
between their ideal body and their actual bodily self. Exposure to
thin media images may then activate and highlight these particular
gaps within an individual’s bodily self-concept, which causes negative
affect and body dissatisfaction. In contrast, if women identify
with the thin ideal during exposure, for instance by imagining that
they are the model portrayed, then the lack of comparison with the
model and the lack of focus on differences between actual and ideal
body may generate positive emotions (at least momentarily).
We know already that thin-ideal internalization presents a crucial
risk factor in the development of women’s body image concerns
and eating disturbances (Cafri, Yamamiya, Brannick, & Thompson,
2005;Thompson & Stice, 2001), and that it is linked with a greater
propensity to make body-related social comparisons (Stormer &
Thompson, 1996). This special issue provides further confirmation
that it is also a powerful vulnerability factor for negative media
effects (Levine & Murnen, 2009, this issue), and demonstrates
that it is linked with processing media images in such a way that
weight-related self-discrepancies are activated with negative emotional
consequences (Dittmar et al., 2009, this issue). Furthermore,
in turn, a likely precursor of internalizing sociocultural body perfect
ideals is a lack of clarity in one’s self-concept, at least in women
(Vartanian, 2009, this issue). A further significant implication of this
special issue is that it highlights the complexity of underlying psychological
processes in media effects, given that women can focus
on differences between themselves and thin media models as well
as identify with the thin ideal through imagining themselves as the
model (Tiggemann et al., 2009, this issue). Although the nature of
their processing appears crucial to whether they experience body
dissatisfaction or positive mood effects, the reported research also
suggests the intriguing possibility that these processes can occur
simultaneously, thus offering the beginning of an explanation for
why girls and women continue to be attracted to glossy and unrealistic
media images that, for vulnerable women, have ultimately
negative effects on body image.
MEDIA AND THE NEGAT IVE IMPACT ON BODY IMAGE 7
This special issue attests to, and builds on, recent developments in
the media and body research field. Furthermore, I hope it can help
to make a case that it is beneficial to conceptualize aspects of body
image as integral components of self-concept and identity, and responses
to the "body perfect" ideals in the media in terms of related
processes.
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Angelina Lance
How do "Body Perfect" Ideals in
the Media have a Negative Impact
on Body Image and Behaviors?
Factors and Processes Related
to Self and Identity
The article “How do “Body Perfect” Ideals in the Media have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity” by Helga Dittmar, focuses in on the “Body Perfect” ideal and how it has emerged as a core aspect of mental and physical well-being. Dittmar suggests that there is a casual link between media and body images and this link influences the importance of individual differences and psychological processes that are related to self and identity. Looking at “Body Perfect” from a social and psychological standpoint you find people with body dissatisfaction that experience negative thoughts and low self esteem about their bodies, linking them to a range of physical and mental health problems. These physical and mental health problems include eating disorders, obesity, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, or low self-esteem leading people to meddle with unhealthy behaviors to reach their goals such as cosmetic surgery, unbalanced diets and even steroid abuse.
After reading this article surprisingly, I wasn’t really shocked. It’s almost like ripping a band-aid off. We see images in the media daily and at first I would look at them in absolute disgust but sadly, now the reaction is almost numb to me. It wasn’t until I was doing a project on anorexia nervosa a few years back that I realized how low the body weight actually is for models today and those models are what young adolescents are comparing themselves to. For my previous project I had brought in a brand new issue of Vogue along with a photo of a famous model from 40 years ago named Twiggy, it wasn’t until I put them side by side that I realized how similar they looked. Twiggy got her famous name from being unbelievably thin and now looking at a magazine article showing her low body weight as the norm doesn’t even phase me.
Dittmar, Helga. "How do "Body Perfect" Ideals in the Media have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors?" Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology 28 (2009): 1-8. EBSCO. Web. 6 Dec. 2009.
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