اثر مواجهه با تصاویر رسانه ای عضلانی بیش از حد بر روی نارضایتی از عضلانی مردان جوان و بدن نارضایتی از بدن

This study examined the effects of exposure to muscular and hypermuscular media images on young men's body images, and the moderating roles of baseline body dissatisfaction (BD) and muscularity dissatisfaction (MD). Men (M age = 21.9, SD = 2.8) were exposed to pictures of muscular (n = 34) or hypermuscular (n = 29) male physiques throughout a 30-min health seminar. In support of the study hypotheses, higher levels of baseline BD and MD were associated with greater post-seminar BD and MD. In addition, MD moderated the effects of the exposure conditions on BD; greater baseline MD was associated with greater post-seminar BD, but only among men who viewed the muscular images. These results speak to the importance of pre-existing muscularity concerns in determining men's reactions to muscular physique images, and suggest that exposure to the media ideal of muscularity, and not muscularity per se, elicits body dissatisfaction in men with pre-existing muscularity concerns.

The increased cultural preference for a muscular physique has become a recent topic of interest (Cafri & Thompson, 2004; Leit, Pope, & Gray, 2000; McCreary & Sasse, 2000; Olivardia, Pope, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2004), with many researchers attempting to elucidate why some men desire to be more muscular. According to Cash's (2002) cognitive-behavioral model of body image, cultural socialization is one of four dimensions that shape the development of one's body image. Throughout Westernized cultures, the mass media has been identified as the main culprit for conveying idealized, gender-specific physique standards (Tiggemann, 2002). Whether one watches television or reads a magazine, the manifested body ideals are easily recognized – that of a thin, yet toned body for women (Brownell, 1991) and a lean, V-shaped body for men (Leit et al., 2000 and Olivardia et al., 2004).