Body image and advertising effects assignment

While the media are largely responsible for the initialization of a thin ideal, other literature has also identified external social factors which influence the perception Of body images. Peers, as the most influential social group, can accentuate the effect of social comparison and induce group popularization, consequently feeling more extreme and distorted about their body shape. Karma, Giles, and Helm (2008) discovered that subjects with peers valuing Hines as beauty were more likely to suffer from inferiority complex. The perception as to what is desirable are often impacted by peer group (McCabe & Recalling 2001).

Parents are another factor which is seen to be the most influential group among children since parents are presumably reliable and trustworthy. Parents’ comment on their children body shape might convey the social norm and thus contributes to children’s dissatisfaction (Rodgers, Pastor, & Chaparral 2009). Furthermore, self-esteem, as an internal factor, is closely tied to body dissatisfaction because adolescents evaluate their appearance base on world views. In current society where the media portray overweight as a stigma, it is not surprising that adolescents may get access to different criticism concerning their appearance. Ender self-evaluation, those who develop low self- esteem are prone to have poor body image (Hendricks & Burgeon 2003). Age plays an imperative role in the extent of consequences caused by advertising. For instance, Clay, Vignettes, and Dimmitt (2005) showed that 65 % of girls between 18 – 20 years old conformed to the body of thin ideals, which indicated that they Were likely to become internalized because they valued societal acceptance based on attractiveness. A lot of research conducted their experiment solely on women, however, little research has been carried out specifically on college-age individuals of both sexes.

Question 7 to 8 examined the likelihood of exposure of participants to female magazines Almost all participants have read a female magazine. Question 9 explicitly revealed the level of body dissatisfaction and self-esteem of participants Overall speaking, 85% respondents Were either not confident or dissatisfied with their own appearance (See bar chart 1). When gender was considered, female (27. 5%) expressed a much higher uncertainty on body image than men (7. 5%) (See bar chart 1). Bar Chart 1 Question 10-13 was designed to verify the social standard of beauty that people perceived nowadays.

Over half of the respondents acknowledged that an ideal body shape should look slender and slim and 70% agreed that being thin is a prerequisite for models. Question 14-17 addressed the impact Of media exposure and peers’ attitude with body image. Peers’ standards were accounted to have considerable amount of influence on body image. 70% of participants valued their friends’ appearance-related comment, with male having a milder effect than female. (See bar chart 2) Bar chart 2 Interestingly however, more participants did not feel pressure when exposed to thin idealized models, with half Of them not bothering what the body size f models are.

Other social factors such as self-esteem, parental attitude and peers influence may also cause notable impact on body image. A number of interviewee responses were similar to some other related research, supporting the hypothesis. Respondents demonstrated their ideal body image by acknowledging that women should appear slim and slender while men should be muscular to be considered as perfect, which is consistent with the ubiquitous portrayal of thin ideals dominated by the media (Stringer-Moore & Somoza 2000).

Results were in line with most of the past literature that 85% of survey respondents were either not confident or dissatisfied with their own appearance (Barman, Personnel & Martinez 2006; Nominate & McCabe 1997). Gilbert et al. (2005) elucidated the phenomena by two major mechanisms, social comparison and cultivation theory. While Thompson & Stick (2001) proposed that women particularly have the innate tendency to evaluate their own attractiveness with desirable models, Tightening & McGill (2004) dealt with gender differences.

While respondents admitted that they are confident in their appearance and style, the majority of them have at least tried to beautify their photos using image-editing software and look into the mirror several times a day. Also, participants showed fear against weighing themselves and have tried to keep fit. These results might indicate that their concerns on body image might not be solely contributed by the media, which the hypothesis focused. This can be validated by majority of respondents agreeing that they will be judged by friends upon their own appearance.

Apart from the media, self-esteem and peers standards were identified as crucial factor for impacting body image. This corroborated with existing “ tripartite influence model” suggested by Shorts & Thompson (2006), which concurred that the perfect beauty image is transmitted and reinforced by three factors: self-esteem, peers and the media. The rather weak correlation between media exposure and body dissatisfaction might be due to the habit of respondents, where many respondents watched television two to three times a week or even less.