Exposure to media images of female attractiveness and concern with body weight among young women

Despite the popular belief that the thin standard of female attractiveness currently presented in the media is a primary contributor to the high level of concern with body weight among women, experimental studies have not shown that exposure to media images increases women's weight concern. Three experiments are reported demonstrating that exposure to media images does often result in increased weight concern among women, but that body dissatisfaction, a stable personality characteristic, is a moderator of vulnerability to this effect. Although most women reported higher weight concern when exposed to media vs. neutral images, women with low initial body dissatisfaction did not. In addition, this research suggests that negative effects on weight concern may result from even passive exposure to media images, but that exposure to realistic attractiveness is less likely to cause increased weight concern. The ethnicity of the participants in these studies reflected that of the local population, with over 90% white, The nonwhite participants primarily belonged to one of the following groups; Asian, Pacific Islander Latino.