Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 73, 1 February 2014, Pages 172-182
Appetite

Research report
Negotiated media effects. Peer feedback modifies effects of media’s thin-body ideal on adolescent girls

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2013.10.023Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Peer feedback on thin-ideal imagery modifies adolescent girls’ body perceptions.

  • Peer feedback interacts with media models in guiding perceptions of an ‘ideal’ body.

  • Unique experiment combined media models and peer comments in YouTube-formats.

  • Peers and predispositions play important roles in the impact of thin-ideal images.

Abstract

The present study introduces a theoretical framework on negotiated media effects. Specifically, we argue that feedback of peers on thin-body ideal media images and individual dispositions guide effects on adolescent girls’ psychosocial responses to media exposure. Therefore, we examined the thin-body ideal as portrayed in media and peers’ feedback on such thin-ideal images in their combined effects on adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction, objectified body consciousness, and social comparison with media models. Hence, media models and peer comments were systematically combined as incorporated entities in YouTube-formats. Hypotheses were tested in a 3 (media models: extremely thin vs. thin vs. normal weight) × 3 (peer comments: 6 kg-underweight vs. 3 kg-underweight vs. normal-weight) × 2 (appearance schematicity: lower vs. higher) between-subjects design (N = 216). Results showed that peer comments indicating that a media model was ‘only 3 kg-underweight’ exerted most negative responses, particularly in girls who strongly process appearance relevant information. Peer feedback interacts with media models in guiding perceptions of what is considered an ‘ideal’ body shape. Results highlight the important role of peers as well as individual predispositions in view of understanding how thin-ideal media images may impact adolescent girls’ body image concerns.

Introduction

“Often they are way too thin – you can count their bones. I don’t think that being very thin is pretty. Yet, I would like to look like them.” (Respondent, 13 years old girl)

Adolescent girls face a dilemma in regard to Western’s thin-body ideals that they frequently encounter via media sources (Field, Cheung, et al., 1999, Grabe et al., 2008, López-Guimerà et al., 2010). On one hand, adolescent girls seem to be aware of the fact that the images such as portrayed in the media over-represent and idealize thin body images (Fouts & Burggraf, 2000). On the other hand, adolescent girls do tend to give into the thin-ideal as normative and realistic representations of the female body, resulting in negative effects of exposure to and reinforcement of thin-ideal standards as frequently aired in Western media (Harrison, 2000, López-Guimerà et al., 2010). However, given the inconsistency in media effect studies (Ferguson, 2013, Holmstrom, 2004), we believe it is important to investigate media’s impact in view of factors that moderate assumed media effects. While previous studies have underscored the role of individual predispositions for body issues in determining media’s impact on body perceptions, rendering some individuals more vulnerable than others (e.g., Aubrey, 2006, Roberts and Good, 2010), the role of peers seems understudied thus far. In brief, in the current paper, we argue that media effects are negotiated by individual differences in susceptibility as well as by peer feedback on media messages (here the media message is: an ideal body is thin).

Previous research does indicate peers as an important intensifier of body image perceptions and socio-cultural ideals in (pre)adolescent girls (e.g., Dohnt and Tiggemann, 2006a, Jones et al., 2004). Several studies have considered the role of peers in comparison to media’s influence on body perceptions (e.g., Clark and Tiggemann, 2006, Ferguson, Muñoz, et al., 2011, McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2005). Furthermore, evidence was found for appearance conversations among peers mediating media exposure on body dissatisfaction (Clark & Tiggemann, 2006). However, to our knowledge, our study is one of the first to investigate how peer influence can negotiate media influences. To do so, the present study systematically combined peer comments and thin-ideal media images in an experimental design (including control groups with average-sized media models) to assess the combined effects on adolescent girls’ psychosocial responses (i.e., in terms of social comparison with media models, objectified body consciousness, and body dissatisfaction). Furthermore, we included appearance schematicity (defined below) to account for expected individual differences in response to the materials (e.g., Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2002a). In the following, the extant research is summarized regarding the role of media and peers in affecting body image perceptions among adolescent girls. We also discuss how we infer the combined influence of media, peer influence, and individual differences and conclude with the formulation of our hypotheses.

Media’s role in contributing to body issues and body perceptions has been widely debated, and research in this realm has shown inconsistent results. Some studies associate media use with being overweight or obese as time spent inactively while consuming media and exposure to food-related content have been found to guide weight-gain and overeating (e.g., Bodenlos and Wormuth, 2013, Must and Tybor, 2005). Other studies focus on the effects of media content, such as airing thin-body ideals, on the emergence or exacerbation of body dissatisfaction and unhealthy dieting behaviors (e.g., Field, Cheung, et al., 1999, Groesz et al., 2002). Interestingly, despite the dominant portrayal of the thin-body ideal in western media, overweight and obesity is on the rise (Wang & Lobstein, 2006). While the discrepancy between the thin body size of media models and the body size of the actual female population is widening (Fouts & Burggraf, 2000), we question how other factors interfere in the assumed effects of media portrayals of a thin-body ideal (e.g., Veldhuis, Konijn, & Seidell, 2012).

The inconsistency in thin-body ideal media effects research is reflected by study results varying from induced negative body perceptions to small effects or no effects, and incidentally even an increase in body satisfaction (Ferguson, 2013, Grabe et al., 2008, Hayes and Tantleff-Dunn, 2010, Holmstrom, 2004, Knobloch-Westerwick and Crane, 2012, López-Guimerà et al., 2010). These differences in results might be partially explained by methodological issues and preexisting individual differences (see Ferguson, 2013, Roberts and Good, 2010). In the following, we discuss the various perspectives in more detail.

Many scholars argue that the overrepresentation of thin-body-ideals in the media causes unhealthy effects and that exposure to this thin-ideal standard is a risk factor for developing body image-related disturbances, especially because the ideal body shape and weight are unattainable for most women (López-Guimerà et al., 2010, Thompson et al., 1999, Thompson and Stice, 2001). In a similar vein, research has shown that internalization of the thin-ideal leads to body surveillance and body shame, together named objectified body consciousness (cf. McKinley and Hyde, 1996, Moradi et al., 2005, Sinclair, 2006), in adolescent girls more strongly than in boys (Knauss, Paxton, & Alsaker, 2008). Consequently, internalizing media’s thin-ideal influences (pre)adolescent girls’ weight concerns and might lead to engagement in (unbalanced) weight control practices such as constant dieting (Field, Cheung, et al., 1999, Field, Camargo, et al., 1999, Field et al., 2001, Stice and Bearman, 2001). In sum, a large body of research, including critical summaries such as meta-analyses, have shown that exposure to thin-ideal images induced a negative body image and body dissatisfaction, especially in adolescent girls (Grabe et al., 2008, Groesz et al., 2002, Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2002a, Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2003, Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2004, López-Guimerà et al., 2010). These results pointed at media as venues affecting women’s body image.

In contrast, other meta-analyses concluded that thin-ideal media depictions resulted in only small to hardly any effects on body dissatisfaction, especially when women were considered as a uniform entity without preexisting individual differences in body issues (Ferguson, 2013, Holmstrom, 2004). However, both meta-studies also signal that a number of studies in this field are methodologically constrained. For example, the experiments used pictures of thin models without overlaid text, thereby decreasing the ecological validity of the studies’ results (Holmstrom, 2004; also argued by Knobloch-Westerwick & Crane, 2012). Surrounding such images with text and comments would more realistically explain adolescent girls’ response to thin-ideal portrayals. Hence, our study explicitly aimed at assessing the effects of a realistic real-life setting by experimentally combining thin-ideal images and textual comments on these images with peers presented as sender of this information (see for related work on user-generated comments: Lee, 2012).

Previous research has further shown that some individuals are more prone to be influenced by thin-ideal exposure than others (e.g., self-esteem, Aubrey, 2006; neuroticism, Roberts & Good, 2010). In our study, we included appearance schematicity, because this variable is more directly related to body image issues (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2002a), and because the role of preexisting body issues deserves more attention in this type of research (Ferguson, 2013). In short, appearance schemas refer to cognitions about appearance that arrange and establish the processing of self-related information, that is, beliefs about one’s own appearance (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2002b). In other words, the concept of appearance schematicity reflects the extent to which an individual allocates meaning and importance to one’s appearance. Studies showed that appearance schematicity and schema activation by viewing appearance related content predict body (dis)satisfaction in adolescent girls (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2002a, Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2002b, Tiggemann, 2006). Furthermore, women who more strongly invest in their appearance (i.e., who are higher in appearance schematicity) seemed more susceptible to the negative effects of media than those who are lower in appearance schematicity by showing higher body dissatisfaction after exposure to appearance-related information (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2002a, Lavin and Cash, 2001). Thus, exposure to schema-relevant information can subsequently induce changes in mood and body satisfaction. Therefore, including appearance schematicity as an individual differences variable seems relevant and essential in our study.

Media are omnipresent in adolescents’ lives, and may therefore serve as an important source of aesthetic standards including the thin-body ideal (e.g., Grabe et al., 2008, Park, 2005). For adolescents, models and celebrities as portrayed in media often function as reference points when it comes to appearance comparisons (Botta, 1999). Moreover, peers also are influential at this stage of adolescent development (e.g., Dohnt and Tiggemann, 2006a, Dohnt and Tiggemann, 2006b). Via social reinforcement, peer pressure, and modeling mechanisms, adolescents’ peers may further strengthen or weaken a girls’ body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, distorted weight perceptions, and eating behavior (e.g., Field et al., 2001, Phares et al., 2004, Stice, 1998, Stice and Whitenton, 2002).

Several studies classified peers as reinforcing factors that influence adolescents’ body image concerns and eating attitudes (e.g., Ata et al., 2007, Keery et al., 2004, Paxton et al., 1999, Phares et al., 2004). Along the lines of Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory, especially same-sex peers proved to be relevant targets for body appearance-related comparisons, next to media models, which seemed to further induce body dissatisfaction (Jones, 2001).

Not only actual peer behavior such as weight control practices is significantly related to that of individual adolescent girls (Levine, Smolak, Moodey, & Hessen, 1994), but due to seeking peer acceptance, girls also seem to adopt perceived weight-related peer beliefs and behaviors (Paxton et al., 1999). For example, perceived peers’ desire for thinness was a precursor for young girls’ desire for thinness, appearance satisfaction, and even purging behavior (Dohnt and Tiggemann, 2006b, Field, Camargo, et al., 1999). Furthermore, girls more than boys discuss their appearance and weight with peers (Jones and Crawford, 2006, Jones et al., 2004). These appearance conversations seem to reinforce the importance to conform to an appearance-ideal resulting in body dissatisfaction (Jones, 2004). Several studies support that conversations with friends about appearance, peer appearance criticism, and peer appearance pressure are directly related to body discontent (e.g., Ata et al., 2007, Jones and Crawford, 2006, Jones et al., 2004, Lawler and Nixon, 2011, Schroff and Thompson, 2006). Because peers have the capacity to influence girls’ weight- and appearance-related attitudes and beliefs, they are a relevant sender of feedback on media models’ body shape and weight. Therefore, we address the combined influence of media and peers in the present study.

Considering the role of peers in the developmental stage of adolescence is one source underlying our assumption of a combined influence of peer feedback on media models in the present study (e.g., Brown & Larson, 2009). Another source stems from the use of information labels in research domains such as media violence and nutrition. Previous research showed that labels providing the consumer with information on the fat percentage of food, effectively directed people’s willingness to eat less fat when compared to a warning text or no text (Bushman, 1998). Similarly, labeling food with health and nutrition information influenced consumers’ perceptions and promoted more healthy food choices (Gray et al., 2011, Papies and Veling, 2012, Sumanac et al., 2012). A review on nutrition labeling suggested that adding interpretational aids like descriptors and reference values are helpful (Cowburn & Stockley, 2005). Furthermore, in this context, information labels seem more effective to reach a desired goal than warning labels (cf. Bushman, 2006, Nije Bijvank et al., 2009). Likewise, a study more closely related to ours, showed that exposure to images of slender models or to thin-ideal body images combined with exercise- and diet-related texts reduced eating among women when compared to experimental groups that saw no images at all or images with irrelevant text about geographical locations (Harrison, Taylor, & Marske, 2006). From their results: we may conclude that adding text to images rephrases the impact of images. Hence, we included information labels in our study to test whether they could positively influence adolescent girls’ health behavior and beliefs.

In a similar vein, informative ‘weight labels’ showed counteracting effects when an extremely thin body image was presented together with information explicating the extremely thin weight status (Veldhuis et al., in press, Veldhuis et al., 2012). That is, in adolescent girls, accurate weight labels on extremely thin media models (i.e., ‘this model is underweight’) induced lower levels of dissatisfaction with their own body and lower levels of social comparison with media models than extremely thin media models combined with a ‘normal weight’-label. Furthermore, adding a ‘normal weight’ information label resulted in a normalization effect throughout the body shape conditions (Veldhuis et al., 2012). That is, adding a ‘normal weight’-label led adolescent girls to believe that the presented model (of whatever weight status) was considered of ‘normal’ shape. More specifically, such information on a (pre-tested) normal-shaped media model induced significantly less negative body perceptions as compared to adding a ‘normal weight’-label to an extremely thin model. The present study further expands this reasoning by transforming such anonymous information labels into supposedly more relevant feedback of peers who comment on attractive models in the media.

Thus far, no study has systematically investigated the combined influence of media models and immediate peer feedback on a media model’s weight status on adolescent girls’ weight-related psychosocial responses in an experimentally controlled design. Therefore, in the present study, we integrated these two influences into one set of stimuli via a YouTube-format to test whether feedback from peers on thin media models might affect social comparison mechanisms, as well as adolescent girls’ objectified body consciousness and body dissatisfaction. In this format, peers’ opinions are presented as reference values (cf. Cowburn & Stockley, 2005). Drawing on aforementioned studies in the discrete contexts of media’s thin-ideal, information labels, and peer influence, we expected that peer comments would modify the effects of media exposure depending on the content of such comments accompanying the media images.

In order to investigate how peer comments can negotiate effects from exposure to thin-ideal media images, we systematically combined peer and media influences in an experimental research design. By combining normative peer comments with media models, the present study more explicitly mimics what implicitly occurs through media exposure, that is, to set a standard of what should be considered ‘normal’. Thus, we expected a normalization effect (H1) of peers commenting on media models in terms of a ‘normal weight’: ‘Normal weight’-comments on an extremely thin media model will result in more body dissatisfaction, more objectified body consciousness, and more social comparison with media models compared to a moderate-weight media model with ‘normal weight’-comments. Moreover, a counteracting effect (H2) occurs when adolescent girls are exposed to an ‘extremely thin’ media model accompanied by congruent peer comments explicating the extreme underweight status, resulting in lower levels of body dissatisfaction, lower levels of objectified body consciousness and lower levels of social comparison with media models compared to an extremely thin media model with mismatching ‘normal weight’-comments.

Furthermore, we expected that individual differences in terms of appearance schematicity moderate the effects of the above assumed interaction between media models and peer comments. That is, these effects would hold more strongly for girls who are higher in appearance schematicity than those who are lower in appearance schematicity (H3).

Section snippets

Participants and design

Participants were 216 adolescent girls (11–18 years old, Mage = 14.15, SDage = 1.47), randomly selected from eight public secondary schools in both urban and rural areas in the Netherlands. Responsible school authorities, teachers, parents, and respondents provided a 99% consent.1 Their educational ability levels varied from low (34.7%), middle (28.7%) to high (36.6%) and a vast majority was born in the Netherlands (96%). The study was

Media models’ body shape

Media models’ body shape included three conditions: (a) extremely thin, (b) thin or (c) normal weight. Three media models to represent these conditions were digitally available and have been selected after a pretest. They were successfully applied in a previous study on adolescent girls, showing that the three models significantly differed in respondents’ perceptions of their thinness, while not differing in perceived attractiveness (Veldhuis et al., 2012). Thus, the present study used these

Manipulation check of media models’ body shape

To check the participants’ interpretation of the media models’ body shape in the present study, they rated a 10-point semantic scale for perceived thinness (i.e., I consider this woman to be ‘extremely thin’ (1) to ‘extremely big’ (10)). Univariate analysis of variance showed that the media models varied significantly in perceived thinness, F(2, 213) = 4.04, p = .02, r = .192. Accordingly, post hoc tests (Bonferroni) showed that the ‘extremely thin’ body shape was rated significantly thinner than the

Discussion

The main goal of our study was to examine how peer feedback on media models’ body shapes strengthens or weakens adolescent girls’ psychosocial responses (in terms of body dissatisfaction, objectified body consciousness, and social comparison with media figures). Therefore, the present study tested the experimentally combined effects of thin media models and peers’ influence by applying explicit weight-related peer communication to media models varying in body size. In addition, we included

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      However, no effects of the slogan manipulation emerged (Hendrickse et al., 2020). A final study explored the effects of adding different peer comments to Youtube images of extremely thin or thin and average-sized girls (Veldhuis et al., 2014). The images were paired with comments referring to the girl portrayed as being 6 kg underweight (approximately 13 lbs), 3 kg underweight (6.5lbs), or of “normal” weight.

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    Acknowledgements: We are very grateful to the pupils and school councils that generously supported us to conduct this study. We also would like to thank Rianne van der Veen for her support in developing and pre-testing the materials, as well as in data collection. Furthermore, we would like to express our gratitude to the editor Dr. Nancy Zucker, anonymous reviewers, and Dr. Christopher Ferguson for their highly constructive and competent feedback on an earlier draft of this ms.

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