Student Researcher: Ndidi Moses (BA Student). This paper was based on a Mc Nair Scholars Senior Research Project.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
For a complete report of this research, see:
Moses, Ndidi N., & Sundar, S. S. (1999, August). Perceptual effects of race and weight of models in magazine advertisements on the body-self concept of Afro-American women. Paper presented at the Penn State Mc Nair Conference, University Park, Pennsylvania State University, August 1-3, 1999 and the Mc Nair Scholars Journal, 1999.
Introduction
Theory and research indicate that the amount of exposure to media plays an important role in the development of an ideal body size. This paper discusses and presents the results of an experiment designed to examine the effects of model race and weight on Afro-American college women's drive for thinness and state self-esteem.
Fundamental to this study is the social comparison theory, which points out that an individual looks for images of models with which to associate. While association with unattainable images can have detrimental effects for an individual's self-esteem, empirical research has not been able to make generalized conclusions in regard to the association between exposure media and a drive for thinness across racial and ethnic boundaries due to the lack of images of Afro-American women in the media, especially with regard to magazine advertising. In fact, the lack of unrealistic images in the media of Afro-American women has been said to be one of the possible reasons why there appears to be no relationship between exposure to media and a drive for thinness for thinness or a low self-esteem among Afro-American women. Based on the assumption that an increase of Afro-American women in the media, specifically magazine advertising, will cause Afro-American women, like Caucasian women to experience a drive for thinness, and a lower self-esteem, three hypotheses were postulated and tested for significance:
H1: Drive for thinness would be negatively associated with state self-esteem.
H2a: Participants exposed to thin models (as opposed to overweight models) will show significantly greater drive for thinness.
H2b: Participants exposed to thin models (as opposed to overweight models) will show significantly lower state self-esteem
H3: There will be an interaction between model race and model weight such that when exposed to thin models there will be a difference in one's drive for thinness and state self-esteem as a function of the race of the model. However, when exposed to overweight models no such differences based on model race are predicted. Empirical evidence suggest exposure to overweight models does not have an adverse effect on participants body self-concept or self-esteem
Method
A 2x2 factorial experiment was designed to test the hypothesis. The independent variables were model race and model weight. The dependent variables, state self-esteem and drive for thinness were measured from the answers given to questions in the questionnaire completed by subjects directly after viewing one of the four conditions.
The participants (N=48) consisted of Afro-American women between the ages of 18-24, and were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (Caucasian thin, Caucasian overweight, Afro-American thin, Afro-American overweight). Conditions were controlled for extraneous factors such as ad context, sex appeal, and product categories. Magazine advertisements were taken from Mode, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, Belle, and Black Woman Magazines.
The questionnaire was administered immediately after exposure to one of the four conditions. It consisted of 46 questions, 10 of which were used for masking purposes in that they measured neither self-esteem nor drive for thinness. Responses were based on scales that were numerical for state self-esteem (not at all=1, a little bit =2, somewhat=3, very much = 4, extremely =5) and alphabetical for the drive for thinness test (N=never, S=sometimes, R=rarely, O=often, U=usually, A=always).
Results
Hypothesis 1 was supported by our study sample, thus substantiating the claim that a low self-esteem and drive for thinness go hand in hand. While finding a negative correlation, this study went further, attempting to find causation.
Hypothesis 2 intended to find out if exposure to thin models in magazine advertisements were the basis for a low self-esteem and drive for thinness. However, while Hypothesis 2 has been found true for other populations, it was not supported by our data. No significance was found for participants who were exposed to thin models in general.
Hypothesis 3 did produce some interesting findings. Participants exposed to images of thin Afro-American models rated their intellectual confidence (an attribute of state self-esteem) to be lower than participants exposed to any of the other three conditions.
The data suggest that exposure to thin Afro-American models does not cause an immediate decrease in the state self-esteem and an increase in a drive for thinness for college-aged Afro-American women. Nevertheless, Afro-American women exposed to conditions with thin Afro-American women experienced a significant drop in their intellectual confidence. The data suggest that participants exposed to overweight models, whether they were Afro-American or Caucasian, did not vary in their response to questions dealing with their level of intellectual confidence.
We can therefore contend that Afro-American women use the images of Afro-American women as their role models and disassociate themselves from Caucasian models. This would give support to Social Comparison Theory which points out that a drive to evaluate oneself, leads to a search for images to identify with. In effect, this need is often satisfied with images that are as close to them as possible.
In addition participants tended to associate thinness as a beauty trait for only Caucasian women. Participants rated Afro-American models as significantly more attractive than Caucasian models despite model weight. However, Caucasian models who were overweight were rated as significantly less attractive than Caucasian models who were thin. This would explain why the data did not show an immediate effect to state self-esteem or drive for thinness for participants exposed to thin Afro-American models.
Conclusions
This research will hopefully add to the few existing studies dealing with the effects of advertising messages on Afro-American women. This will encourage researchers to re-evaluate past research that has found no effect of advertising messages on Afro-American women. While this research and past research has found that there is no effect on drive for thinness, there are effects on intellectual confidence. This research is also important for advertisers, and companies who are marketing to Afro-American college-aged women. Data from this research implies that Afro-American females prefer images of overweight Afro-American women to those of thin or overweight Caucasian women. Thus, an obvious implication is that communication studies provide extensive research on all populations when dealing with a media-effects issue.
For more details/information about this study, please contact:
Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Associate Professor and Director
Media Effects Research Laboratory
College of Communications
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ph: (814) 865 2173
E-mail: sss12@psu.edu
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