Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

An Experiment in Female Viewers’ Attentiveness to Pro-Esteem Media Messages

Pierre Wilhelm Athabasca UniversityLucian Dinu University of Louisiana Dorina Miron Arizona State University

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Pro-body esteem messages in the media and in the news

1996 Look good on your own terms!

1998 Treat your body with respect and kindness!

2000 British magazine editors banned ultra-thin models

2002 Real Women Have Curves

2006 Ugly Betty

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

2006 A Madrid high fashion show introduced a ban on overly thin models

2007 The Council of Fashion Designers of America announced guidelines to help models live more healthy lives

Be the best you can be and celebrate your shape!

Every girl deserves to see how beautiful she really is

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Can pro-esteem messages broadcast by the media improve female viewers’ body esteem?

Research Question (examining viewers’ body-esteem effects)

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

At issue…

Beneficial effects of pro-esteem media messages could help revert the following trends:

• An epidemic in low self-esteem presently affects women around the world (Cash, T. & Pruzinsky, T., 1990; Myers & Biocca 1992)

• Poor body-esteem is often linked to poor health behavior, including excessive dieting, strenuous exercise, diuretics, anorexia and bulimia (Koff & Rierdan, 1998).

• Ideals of feminine beauty portrayed in the media contribute to perpetuate a general feeling of inadecuacy among female viewers (Martin & Gentry, 1997).

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Hypothesis 1

Experimental Design

N= 33Pro-esteem

Personal valuesMovie segment5 min

N= 30Pro-thin Preferred valuesMovie segment5 min

N= 32Pro-esteem Personal values TV ads5 min.

N= 31 Pro-thin Societal valuesTV ads5 min

Look good on your own terms!

“That’s who we are… real women!”

Reveal the Goddess in you!

(Men, value the this woman’s appearance)

Eat Sensibly!

Hypothesis 4

Hypothesis 3

Hypothesis 2

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Health

Methodology

Body

Friends

School Mass Media

Family

Modified self esteem Dubois et al. (1996) questionnaire 3

Attitudes to media questionnaire 1

Attitudes to test message

questionnaire 2

Health

Body

Friends

School Mass Media

Family

Modified self esteemDubois et al. (1996) questionnaire 3

• what did viewer understand of test clip?

• what aspects of message did viewer focus on?

• viewer’s first and last impressions?

• viewer’s relationship to message?

• general attitudes to persuasive media messages?

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Results

Group

Women have curvesSports IllustratedKelloggVenus

Me

an

of

BO

DY

IMG

.3

.2

.1

-.0

-.1

-.2

-.3

Viewers’ perception of body-image

Group

Women have curvesSports IllustratedKelloggVenus

Me

an

of

refe

ren

ces

to w

eig

ht/

size

/ap

pe

ara

nce

5.0

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

Positive references to viewers’ weight and appearance

Group

Women have curvesSports IllustratedKelloggVenus

Me

an

of

po

sitiv

e r

efe

ren

ces

to O

WN

ima

ge

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.0

.8

.6

.4

Positive referenceto body image

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Results

• this effect may increase cumulatively over the course of time if commercial media companies continue to take up this cause

• these results lend support to marketers who strive to adopt more socially responsible ad campaigns:

• female viewers experienced short-term increases in body-esteem after viewing pro-esteem test clips• this effect was stronger after they watched a pro- body esteem movie than pro-esteem ads• pro-esteem messages appealed to female viewers and positively

influenced their body esteem over a short period of time

Implications

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Research Question(examining viewers’ thought processes)

What aspects of pro-esteem persuasive messages did women viewers pay attention to and think about that likely affected their body-esteem?

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

At issue…

Contemporary research examines the negative effect on female viewers’ body-esteem of stylized images depicting thin models

Reference: Social-Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)• female viewers pay attention to the stylized images of thin

female models broadcast in the media • viewing these images engages them in a process of self-

comparison with an idealized feminine silhouette• negative self-comparative thoughts can affect viewers’ body

esteem and health behavior (Irving, 1990;Turner, Hamilton, Jacob, Angood, & Hovde-Dwyer, 1997)

This process may not adequately explain the persuasive process at play in this experiment where female viewers paid attention to complex pro-esteem messages and to explicit & underlying arguments, and images of “real” men and women.

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

The present research set out to explain results from two theoretical perspectives and examined the correspondence between:

1) a general model of persuasion, Petty & Cacioppo (1986) ‘s Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM):

• viewers’ level of attention to central message issues and arguments influences the strength and durability of persuasive outcome.

Prediction: viewers will pay attention to the explicit and implicit persuasive appeal of pro-esteem messages (including images of women and men) in test messages in order to make sense of its key issue(s).

2) a general model of self-esteem, Leary (1999)’s Sociometer Theory: • viewers’ level of attention to underlying interpersonal messages cues engages

them in social-relational thinking affecting their self esteem.

Prediction: viewers will pay attention to the implicit appeals of pro-body esteem issues and engage in positive social-relational thinking.

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Frequency of viewers’ thoughts about ads

N = 33 Understood an explicit pro-esteem issue & engaged in social-relational thinking

18

Understood a product issue & did not engage in social-relational thinking

17

Thought about “real “ models’ appearance (some were viewers critical of the image of women, but not of men)

60

Effect Improved body-esteem (+).14

N = 30 Understood explicit product issue and and engage in other thoughts

18

Understood explicit “goddess” issue & engaged in social-relational thinking

5

Thought about thin models’ appearance (reinforced product issue)

40

Effect No change in body-esteem (+) .09

• analysis of open questions• coding rules • frequency of issue and non-issue relevant thoughts• reliability coefficient = .212

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

N =14 Understood explicit pro-esteem issue &engaged in social-relational thinking

11

Understood other issue & did not engage in social-relational thinking

0

Thought about “real “ models’ appearance (most viewers were critical of images of “real women”)

45

Effect Raised body-esteem (+) .25

N = 29 Understood underlying issue &engaged in social-relational thinking

11

Understood other issue & did not engage in social-relational thinking

Thought about “real “ models’Appearance; this engaged viewers in: a) a social-comparison process in

relation to model’s thin silhouette b) a social-relational process in

relation to men’s expectations of female beauty

27

Effect Lowered body-esteem (-) .20

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

DiscussionThe Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986): • helped provide sound predictive and general explanatory power for the phenomenon observed: the more female viewers engaged in issue-relevant thinking the more they seemed to experience strong changes in their body esteem

• researchers did not determine which explicit/implicit message cues triggered issue-relevant thinking; they concluded that viewers paid attention to an entire message at a time in order to make sense of an appealing issue

• images of men and women helped viewers relate to (contextualize) an issue; only in the Sports Illustrated segment where no clear narrative seemed apparent did the image of a thin model determine the central issue to which viewers were drawn

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

The Sociometer Theory (Leary, 1999)

• under conditions of viewers’ high and low attention to message information, the concept of social-relational thinking related conceptually to issue-relevant thinking• this co-process affected the intensity of message effects

on viewers’ body esteem

• changes in body-esteem seemingly occured as co-effects.

Washington AEJMC Conference August, 2007

Addressing limitations (further research)

• Replicate study to improve statistical resultsand ensure that these don’t owe to chance

• Analyze qualitative results in order to better understand

1) issue-relevant thinking, i.e., how viewers make sense of explicit and implicit arguments (along denotative/connotative meaning) and reach a conclusion about an issue

2) social-relational thinking, i.e. how viewers examine interpersonal message cues (connotative meaning) and engage in reflective thinking about how others view and accept them

• Examine the role that images play in relation to 1 and 2, notably stereotypical representations of women and men

• Identify interpersonal message cues that trigger social-relational thinking