Body Image and the Media: Does Ethnicity Make a Difference?

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An Upward Appearance Comparison Scale allows participants to indicate the level of agreement with the scale items using a 5 point Likert Scale, 1 ( strongly disagree) to 5 ( strongly agree). For this test, a higher score indicates a greater tendency to compare oneself to another. Sample items for this scale are; I compare myself to those who are better looking than me rather than those who are not or when I see good-looking people I wonder how I compare to them. This scale will allow me to test participants and the influence exposure to certain media has on them (O’Brien, Caputi, & Peoples, 2009).

A simple magazine survey consisting of 13 questions will be used while participants are placed in the waiting room to attract their attention to the advertisements that are placed with in. Questions for this survey will be along the lines of; what was the content of the magazine, did you find the advertisements in the magazine were used as which intended, or how often do you purchase a magazine.

Procedures

I will be randomly assigning participants to either one of two groups, one group viewing magazines such as Shape, Women’s Health and Fitness and Oxygen while the other group will view magazines such as Cosmo, Vogue and Elle. The group that will be viewing magazines that are fitness based will be paired with a Hispanic model while the group viewing the more “traditional” everyday women’s fashion magazine will be paired with a Caucasian model. Magazines will be altered, in which each magazine will consist of the same number of advertisements as well as the correct ethnicity of the model for the paired group. Upon arrival, participants will be asked to complete a Body Image Satisfaction survey before being placed individually in a waiting room. While in the waiting room, participants will be asked to complete a simple magazine survey in order to reassure that they are viewing the advertisements. After being placed in the waiting room for 20 minutes, the participant will be asked to complete an Upward Appearance Comparison Scale as well as a Weight Influence Self Esteem Questionnaire. Participants are anticipated to show an increase in body dissatisfaction after viewing the advertisements with either the Hispanic fitness model or the Caucasian runway model but will show a more significant increase after viewing the Caucasian model.

Discussion

A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANVOA) was conducted on Hispanic advertisements/ Caucasian advertisements and their effects on body dissatisfaction and revealed a significant increase in body dissatisfaction after participants viewed advertisements that were consisted of Caucasian models. Some limitations to this study will be accuracy, since all measures are self-surveys it is very simple for participants to alter their answers. Findings for this study were consistent with previous research but still leave a gap with the amount information to make such claims. For future studies, researchers should include a pretest and posttest of the participant’s body satisfaction.