اثر مشاهده تصاویر فوق العاده مناسب بر روی نارضایتی از بدن کالج زنان

Modern ideals of female attractiveness include an extremely toned and fit appearance in addition to extreme thinness. Although viewing thin models has a negative effect on women's body image, research has not tested the effect of exposure to the ultra-fit physique separate from the thin-ideal. This randomized, posttest-only experiment tested the effects of the athletic aspect of the current ideal by exposing 138 undergraduate women to thin and athletic models, normal weight athletic models, or a control condition consisting of neutral objects. The study also tested the moderating effects of thin-ideal and athletic-ideal internalization. Exposure to thin ultra-fit models, but not normal weight ultra-fit models, produced an increase in body dissatisfaction and neither internalization variable moderated this effect. Findings suggest that interventions that focus on the benefits of fitness while challenging the desirability of thinness may offer promising results.

Sociocultural explanations for the development of disordered eating typically emphasize the role of the media in establishing unrealistic standards of female attractiveness. Modern ideals include an extremely toned and fit appearance in addition to thinness. Ample evidence shows that exposure to media images of thinness increases women's negative feelings about their bodies, particularly when women have internalized the desirability of the cultural thin ideal (Dittmar et al., 2009 and Grabe et al., 2008). However, the effects of exposure to images that exemplify the extremely fit and muscular aspect of the cultural ideal remain unclear. Various lines of evidence suggest that exposure to fit, athletic images is linked with body dissatisfaction only when the athletes are very lean (Daniels, 2009 and Harrison and Fredrickson, 2003), suggesting that the source of dissatisfaction is not so much the strong and fit appearance of the women but their thinness. The purpose of the current study was to experimentally test whether exposure to an ultra-fit physique would produce body dissatisfaction in the absence of extreme thinness, as well as to explore the moderating role of internalization of the cultural ideal.