Want Stephen C
Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada.
Body Image. 2009 Sep;6(4):257-69. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2009.07.008. Epub 2009 Aug 28.
Experimental exposure to idealized media portrayals of women is thought to induce social comparisons in female viewers and thereby to be generally detrimental to female viewers' satisfaction with their own appearance. Through meta-analysis, the present paper examines the impact of moderators of this effect, some identified and updated from a prior meta-analysis and some that have hitherto received little attention. Participants' pre-existing appearance concerns and the processing instructions participants were given when exposed to media portrayals were found to significantly moderate effect sizes. With regard to processing instructions, a novel and counter-intuitive pattern was revealed; effect sizes were smallest when participants were instructed to focus on the appearance of women in media portrayals, and largest when participants processed the portrayals on a distracting, non-appearance dimension. These results are interpreted through a framework that suggests that social comparisons are automatic processes, the effects of which can be modified through conscious processing.
实验性地接触理想化的女性媒体形象被认为会引发女性观众的社会比较，从而总体上不利于女性观众对自身外貌的满意度。通过元分析，本文研究了这种效应的调节因素的影响，其中一些是从先前的元分析中识别并更新的，还有一些迄今很少受到关注。研究发现，参与者预先存在的外貌担忧以及在接触媒体形象时给予他们的处理指示会显著调节效应大小。关于处理指示，揭示了一种新颖且违反直觉的模式；当参与者被指示关注媒体形象中女性的外貌时，效应大小最小，而当参与者在一个分散注意力的、与外貌无关的维度上处理这些形象时，效应大小最大。这些结果通过一个框架来解释，该框架表明社会比较是自动过程，其影响可以通过有意识的处理来改变。
