UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF THIN MEDIA MODELS ON WOMEN'S BODY-FOCUSED AFFECT: THE ROLES OF THIN-IDEAL INTERNALIZATION AND WEIGHT-RELATED SELF-DISCREPANCY ACTIVATION IN EXPERIMENTAL EXPOSURE EFFECTS

Previous experimental research demonstrates that exposure to ultra-thin media models has negative effects on many women's body image, but neglects underlying psychological processes. We develop and test a moderated mediation model with internalization of the thin beauty ideal as moderator, and activation of weight-related self-discrepancies as mediating mechanism through which exposure leads to heightened body-focused negative affect. We demonstrate that thin-internalizers' higher negative affect after exposure to advertisements featuring thin models is fully mediated by weight-related self-discrepancy activation (N = 87; Study 1). These findings replicate in a larger sample of women (N = 155; Study 2) and hold regardless of whether or not thin models' body size was emphasized during exposure. Implications for interventions are discussed.