Can the Media Affect Us? Social Comparison, Self-Discrepancy, and the Thin Ideal

By Gayle R. Bessenoff. 2006

460 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e92907603f8e3466226d2c7c6c11887519968aa4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

In Marketing

Citations in the corpus

The Effects of the Sexualization of Female Video Game Characters on Gender Stereotyping and Female Self-Concept (2009, background): “Specifically, exposure to idealized images of the female body affects self-esteem and selfefficacy ( Bessenoff 2006; Clay et al. 2005; Hawkins, et al. 2004).”
Upward and Downward: Social Comparison Processing of Thin Idealized Media Images (2010, background): “More importantly, engaging in social comparison processing while viewing thin idealized images has been found to at least partially mediate negative effects on subsequent poorer mood and body dissatisfaction (Bessenoff, 2006; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004; Tiggemann, Polivy, & Hargreaves, 2009; Tiggemann”
How do "Body Perfect" Ideals In tHe MedIa Have a negatIve IMPact on Body IMage and BeHavIors? factors and Processes related to self and IdentIty (2009, unknown): “Studies on psychological processes are far fewer, but have highlighted that women’s responses to the thin ideal cannot simply be explained by processes of upward social comparison with a media image perceived as superior (e.g., Bessenoff, 2006).”
Social comparison as a predictor of body dissatisfaction: A meta-analytic review. (2009, background): “Body Dissatisfaction One negative psychological consequence of appearance-focused social comparisons is body dissatisfaction (e.g., Bessenoff, 2006; Engeln-Maddox, 2005; Halliwell & Harvey, 2006; Trampe, Stapel, & Siero, 2007), a major risk factor for eating disorders and disordered eating…”
Fat Talk Among College Women is Both Contagious and Harmful (2012, methodology): “common method of experimentally increasing women’s state body dissatisfaction) has been shown to increase state-level negative affect (Bessenoff 2006; Groesz et al. 2002).”
Pinterest or Thinterest?: Social Comparison and Body Image on Social Media (2016, methodology): “The Extent Thoughts Questionnaire was taken from Bessenoff’s (2006) study, which was designed to assess thoughts relating to social comparison, appearance, and weight.”
Integrating Social Comparison Theory and Self-Esteem within Objectification Theory to Predict Women’s Disordered Eating (2010, background): “Bessenoff (2006) found that U.S. college women tend to engage in body comparison when exposed to thin-ideal media advertisements.”
Understanding the Impact of Thin Media Models on Women's Body-Focused Affect: The Roles of Thin-Ideal Internalization and Weight-Related Self-Discrepancy Activation in Experimental Exposure Effects (2009, background): “This proposal is supported by three studies, two of which reported that negative exposure effects are mediated by social comparison processes (Bessenoff, 2006; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004), and the third showed that negative effects depend on the type of social comparison motive, with different finding”
A longitudinal content analysis of gender role portrayal in Belgian television advertising (2016, background): “Moreover, if women compare themselves to these sexualized images, this can negatively impact their self-esteem and body-satisfaction (Bessenoff 2006).”
Absorbing Society’s Influence: Body Image Self-Discrepancy and Internalized Shame (2006, methodology): “This scale has been widely used in body image research (e.g., Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001), to measure both body ideals (e.g., Harrison, 2003) and body image discrepancies (e.g., Bessenoff, 2006; Fitzgibbon, Blackman, & Avellone, 2000).”
Gender Differences in Video Game Characters’ Roles, Appearances, and Attire as Portrayed in Video Game Magazines (2007, background): “For instance, exposure to “ideal” males and females can negatively impact self-esteem (Barlett et al. 2005; Bessenoff 2006) and exposure to negative images of”
The processing of thin ideals in fashion magazines: A source of social comparison or fantasy? (2009, background): “More importantly, appearance comparison processing has been found to at least partially mediate the negative effect of thin ideal images on mood and body dissatisfaction (Bessenoff, 2006; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004; Tiggemann & Slater, 2004). So how then might we explain positive effects? To explain t”