The Influence of Television Programs on Appearance Satisfaction: Making and Mitigating Social Comparisons to “Friends”

• Published in: Sex roles Vol. 60; no. 9-10; pp. 642 - 655
• Main Authors: Want, Stephen C., Vickers, Kristin, Amos, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.05.2009; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescents; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Body Image; Content analysis; Control Groups; Eating Disorders; Females; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender Studies; Influence; Interpersonal Attraction; Mass Media; Medicine/Public Health; Meta Analysis; Original Article; Periodicals; Personal appearance; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Resistance (Psychology); Scientific Concepts; Self Concept; Self image; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social psychology; Sociology; Television; Television Commercials; Television programs; Women; Social comparison; Intervention; Appearance satisfaction; Television; Body image; Human; Social perception; Appearance satisfaction . Social comparison; Satisfaction; Television . Body image; Physical appearance; Adolescent; Young adult; Female; Mass media
• ISSN: 0360-0025; 1573-2762
• DOI: 10.1007/s11199-008-9563-7

Studies of “media effects” on women’s appearance satisfaction have focused largely on images from fashion magazines and television commercials, and rarely on images from television programs. The present study reports on the effects of experimental exposure to a television situation-comedy depicting thin and highly physically-attractive characters on appearance satisfaction in Canadian undergraduate women ( N  = 76) from a large, ethnically-diverse, metropolitan area. The results demonstrate a detrimental effect on participants’ satisfaction with their overall appearance, as measured on a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). This result is interpreted in line with social comparison theory. In addition, exposure to written intervention material, designed to remove the basis for social comparison with television images, was shown to be effective in mitigating this effect.