Extending Social Comparison: An Examination of the Unintended Consequences of Idealized Advertising Imagery

By Charles S. Gulas, Kim McKeage. 2000

168 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The literature indicates that the idealized images of physical attractiveness found in advertising have a negative impact on girls' and women's self-perceptions. The current study extends this research to males and adds the dimension of financial success. The empirical findings presented here indicate that exposure to idealized images of both physical attractiveness and financial success have a negative effect on males' self-evaluations. This study also examines the role of attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) in moderating the effects, and finds that high ATSCI sometimes exacerbates the unintended consequences of attractive advertising images on people's self-perceptions.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/adcb58144ab3c04d99d30db4100a0a83450c0e2d

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In Applied Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Marketing

Citations in the corpus

Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts (2007, background): “Research shows that exposure to such idealized messages about financial success in advertisements can in fact negatively influence people’s self-evaluations (Gulas and McKeage, 2000).”
The effects of television advertising on materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness: A review of research (2003, background): “Three experiments (Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Gulas & McKeage, 2000; Richins, 1991) found that exposure to print advertisements containing idealized images of physical attractiveness and financial success negatively affected males’ and females’ self-perceptions.”
Idealized images of the male body in advertising: a reader‐response exploration (2005, result): “A study by Gulas and McKeage (2000) extended the work on social comparison theory to men and found similar results to those previously found with women.”
Physical attractiveness of the service worker in the moment of truth and its effects on customer satisfaction (2009, background): “Indeed, Gulas and McKeage (2000) argue that there is a nearly automatic tendency to categorize a person as attractive or unattractive.”
Advertising Professionals’ Perceptions of the Impact of Gender Portrayals on Men and Women: A Question of Ethics? (2015, background): “…research has focused on how women engage in social comparison to ads, recent research has demonstrated that men compare themselves to advertising ideals and may experience feelings of inadequacy, negative self-perceptions, or vulnerability as a result (Gulas and McKeage 2000; Zayer and Otnes 2012).”