Proponents of sociocultural theory suggest that body dissatisfaction results from unrealistic ideals of attractiveness transmitted through the media. In the present experiment, 195 female and 206 male adolescents viewed 20 appearance-related or 20 nonappearance-related television commercials. The results showed that viewing appearance commercials led to increased schema activation, anger, and body dissatisfaction, as well as to decreased confidence in women compared to the viewing of nonappearance commercials. Schema activation was shown to partly mediate the effect of commercial viewing on appearance dissatisfaction. The level of appearance schema, an individual difference variable, moderated the effect of commercial viewing on body dissatisfaction. For men, viewing appearance commercials led to increased schema activation, although mood and body dissatisfaction were not affected. These results support the usefulness of self-schema theory in proposing schema activation as the underlying process by which the media can increase body dissatisfaction, and appearance schematicity as the explanation for why some individuals are more vulnerable than others to media effects.
