Psychosocial Research Group, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, 2031, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2010 Jun 4;10:308. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-308.
Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to images depicting the thin female ideal has negative effects on some females' levels of body dissatisfaction. Much of this research, however, has utilised relatively long stimulus exposure times; thereby focusing on effortful and conscious processing of body-related stimuli. Relatively little is known about the nature of females' affective responses to the textual components of body-related stimuli, especially when these stimuli are only briefly encountered. The primary aim of the current research was to determine whether young women automatically evaluate body-related words and whether these responses are associated with body image concerns, including self-reported levels of appearance schematicity, thin internalisation, body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint.
An affective priming task was used to investigate whether females automatically evaluate body-related words, and whether this is associated with self-reported body image concerns. In a within-participants experimental design, the valence congruence of the prime and target pairs was manipulated. Participants selected body words as primes in Experiment 1 (N = 27), while normatively selected body words were primes in Experiment 2 (N = 50). Each prime was presented briefly, followed by a target word which participants judged as "good" or "bad". The dependent variable was response latency to the target.
Automatic evaluation was evident: responding to congruent pairs was faster than responding to incongruent pairs. Body image concerns were unrelated to automaticity.
The findings suggest that brief encounters with body words are likely to prompt automatic evaluation in all young women, and that this process proceeds unintentionally and efficiently, without conscious guidance.
先前的研究表明，接触描绘理想瘦女性形象的图片会对某些女性的身体不满程度产生负面影响。然而，这项研究大多使用了相对较长的刺激暴露时间，从而侧重于对与身体相关的刺激进行费力和有意识的处理。对于女性对与身体相关的刺激的文本成分的情感反应的性质，相对知之甚少，尤其是当这些刺激只是短暂出现时。当前研究的主要目的是确定年轻女性是否会自动评估与身体相关的词汇，以及这些反应是否与身体形象问题有关，包括自我报告的外貌图式化程度、内化的瘦体型、身体不满和饮食控制。
采用情感启动任务来研究女性是否会自动评估与身体相关的词汇，以及这是否与自我报告的身体形象问题有关。在参与者内实验设计中，操纵了启动和目标词对的效价一致性。在实验 1 中，参与者选择身体词作为启动词（N = 27），而在实验 2 中，规范选择的身体词作为启动词（N = 50）。每个启动词都短暂呈现，然后呈现一个目标词，参与者需要判断这个目标词是“好”还是“坏”。因变量是对目标词的反应时。
自动评估是明显的：对一致词对的反应比对不一致词对的反应更快。身体形象问题与自动性无关。
研究结果表明，与身体相关的词汇的短暂接触很可能会在所有年轻女性中引发自动评估，而且这个过程是无意识和高效的，不需要有意识的指导。
