Advertisements are everywhere...on TV, in magazines, on billboards...companies want their products to be bought! Companies brag that their products will improve our lives and one focus is making us skinnier, thinner, prettier.
One research study in the UK looked at the effects of using thinner models in advertisements and if it effects the choice to consume healthier, low calorie snacks. They reported:
"Fifty female undergraduates saw a set of advertisements for beauty products showing either thin or computer-altered normal-size female models, allegedly as part of a study on effective advertising. After rating the advertisements, they were offered a choice of snacks that came either in a normal or a diet variant. Habitual tendency to show restrained eating behavior was measured as an individual difference variable. Above and beyond body mass index, significantly more women chose the diet snack in the thin-model condition than in the normal-size model condition. The model main effect was moderated by habitual restrained eating. In the normal-size model condition, the more women reported restrained eating, the more likely they were to choose the diet snack. By contrast, women in the thin-model group were more likely to choose the diet snack regardless of individual differences in habitual restrained eating. The findings show that in the present sample of White college women the impact of body images pressures was pervasive, affecting some women by encouraging habitual restrained eating and even less restrained eaters through their exposure to published images of thin models."Do you think the advertisements and the use of skinny, thin models is effecting the way we choose our foods?
Reference
Krahé, B., & Krause, C. (2010). Presenting thin media models affects women's choice of diet or normal snacks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34(3), 349-355. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2010.01580.x
Wow, I can totally relate to choosing "skinnier snacks" after seeing skinny ads. There is something about seeing a woman with almost no body-fat that naturally makes a person feel guilty if they eat a normal meal. This is such a cultural issue though, and I am curious if this same study were done with all Latina women, looking at women in Latina ads (for example) if the result would be the same? I know I have always been more conscious about my weight if I was dating someone of Anglo-American descent than a person from an ethnicity that appreciates meat on woman´s bones, wherein I hardly thought about it, and was generally praised if I gained weight! YASI
ReplyDeleteInteresting proposal! I definitely think that this study was based on women that come from a culture that praises weight loss and being thin. You sparked my interest on the cultural front for eating disorders!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how prevalent eating disorders are in other countries...especially Latin American countries where women are generally (or stereotypically?) praised for their curves?
Look for a post on this issue soon!