Contrast Or Assimilationas a Result of Upward Social Comparison with Idealized Images

Contrast or AssimilationAs a Result of Upward Social Comparison with Idealized Images: The Role of Mode of Exposure and Priming

Fang Wan, University of Manitoba, Canada*
Tamara Ansons, University of Manitoba, Canada*
Jason Leboe, University of Manitoba, Canada
Dirk Smeesters, ErasmusUniversity, The Netherlands
Short Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate how idealized images in advertising affect young women’s self perceptions within the framework of social comparison theory. In particular, we propose that social comparison process can take place via either an implicit or an explicit route. An implicit social comparison, when taking place automatically, can lower viewers’ self-perception and body satisfaction and lead to a contrast effect. However, when taking place within the scope of viewers’ attention and awareness, an explicit social comparison will allow viewers’ to engage in conscious efforts to boost their own self-esteem through counter-argument, leading to an assimilation effect.We tested these propositions with three experiments.
Extended Abstract

The popular use of highly attractive women in advertising has received some support from consumer research in terms its positive impacts on product evaluation, ad evaluation and purchase intention (Belch et al. 1987; Kang and Herr 2006). However, this line of research is increasingly challenged by the mounting research evidence that exposure to idealized images in advertising media elicits upward social comparison, resulting in negative mood (e.g., Stice and Shaw 1994), decreased body satisfaction (see review Groesz et al. 2002), decreased self-assessed attractiveness (e.g., Smeesters and Mandel 2006) and even increased problematic eating patterns (e.g., Harrison 2000) among young women. At the same time, other researchers have documented that idealized images of female models can enhance women’s body satisfaction and self esteem (e.g., Myers and Biocca 1992; Mills et al. 2002; Henderson-King et al. 2001). Our understanding of the processes and boundary conditions of positive and negative effects of idealized images on women’s self perceptions has an important marketing implication: if the idealized images in advertising are detrimental to women’s body and self esteem, how can products and brands endorsed by idealized female images be successfully marketed at and received by female consumers (Bower 2001)? Therefore, consumer researchers need to re-scrutinize the impact of idealized images on young women and resolve previous research discrepancies.

The task of this research is to examine the boundary conditions of positive and negative impacts of idealized images on young women. Whereas most research attention has been devoted to the negative effects of idealized images on self evaluations among young women (see review, Groesz et al. 2002), we are interested in examining the mechanism and processes that gives rise to other observations that exposure to idealized images can enhance self perceptions (e.g., Henderson-King et al. 2001; Meyers and Biocca 1992). Employing the framework of social comparison theory, we propose that social comparison process can take place via either an implicit or an explicit route. An implicit social comparison, when taking place automatically, or outside viewers’ awareness, can lower viewers’ self-perception and body satisfaction and lead to a contrast effect. However, when taking place within the scope of viewers’ attention and awareness, an explicit social comparison will allow viewers’ to engage in conscious efforts to boost their own self-esteem through counter-argument. Such an explicit social comparison, therefore, will lead to more positive self-perceptions and enhanced body satisfaction, resulting in an assimilation effect. We tested these propositions with three experiments.

The first experiment explored the role of mode of exposure to idealized images in triggering differential social comparison processes. To induce either implicit or explicit social comparison, participants were asked to engage in one of two tasks while being exposed to idealized images. Participants in the implicit social comparison group were led to believe that they were participating in a study that examined peoples’ natural intuition about the types of sunglasses that are most suitable for different face shapes. In contrast, participants in the explicit social comparison group were asked to rate the attractiveness of each of the women. In line with our predictions, participants in the implicit social comparison group reported lower evaluations of their weight related body traits compared to participants in the explicit social comparison group.

To further explore this finding, our goal of Experiment 2 was to examine whether participants’ evaluations of their weight related body traits could be modified by inducing either a positive or negative interpretive frame. We expected that altering the interpretive frame would not influence the participants in the explicit social comparison group since they would be able to shield themselves from the impact of the interpretive frame by being consciously aware of, therefore combating the negative impact of threatening upward social comparison. In contrast, we expected that the participants in the implicit social comparison group would be influenced by the interpretive frame, leading to a contrast effect when the interpretive frame is positive, and an attenuated contrast effect when the interpretive frame is negative. In line with our expectations, we found that participants in the explicit social comparison group were unaffected by the interpretive frame. However, participants in the implicit social comparison group were affected by the interpretive frame: their self-perception was more negative when the content of the priming task biases them to interpret characteristics of the idealized females positively than when the priming task encourages a more negative interpretive frame. Thus, our results suggest that after explicit exposure to idealized female images, participants are able to insulate themselves from the negative impact of these idealized female images, whereas after implicit exposure participants are not able to shield themselves from negative impact of these female images, but are influenced by inducing either a positive or negative interpretive frame.

To account for the differences found for the participants in the explicit and implicit social comparison groups in Experiments 1 and 2 we speculated that participants in explicit social comparison are more aware of the upward social comparison process and tend to engage in counter-arguments to insulate themselves from the negative impact of exposure to a highly attractive comparison target. However, engaging in ego-protective strategies during the explicit social comparison process is cognitively demanding, therefore, such explicit social comparison processes requires more cognitive resources than social comparison processes that are implicit. To test this notion, our third experiment was conducted to mainly examine the role of the availability of cognitive resources in modulating the impact of exposure to idealized female images on participants’ self-evaluations. Supporting our predictions, participants found the sunglasses task more cognitively demanding, which, consequently, meant that they had fewer cognitive resources available to engage in conscious strategies and counter-arguments that would help in protecting them from the negative consequences of exposure to idealized female images.

Altogether, these three experiments contribute to our understanding of the impact of social comparison processes on self evaluations. Surprisingly, our results indicate that participants were best equipped to deal with exposure to idealized images when this exposure was explicit. Thus, rather counterintuitively, we have found that women may be most susceptible to the negative consequences of exposure to idealized female images precisely when they are not focusing on their level of attractiveness.

Contrast or Assimilation As a Result of Upward Social Comparison with Idealized Images: The Role of Mode of Exposure and Priming

In addition, media researchers have noted that the idealfemale body size, as it is depicted in advertising, has gradually decreased over time,causingan increasing deviation of this female ideal from the size of the average woman (Garner et al. 1980; Garner 1997; Sypecket al., 2006).Others argue that the cultural norm generated through the frequent depiction of unrealistic female idealsin media encourages the evaluation of women based solely on their physical attributes (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997). Moreover, for most women, frequent exposure to this female ideal results in strong social pressure to achieve an impossibly thin body shape and an unattainable level of physical attractiveness (Faludi 1991; Freedman 1986, 1988; Wolf 1991). To help avoid these negative consequences, consumer researchers have a responsibility to investigate means of counteracting the social and normative pressures that stem from the use of idealized female images in advertising. Discovering how the negative effects of such advertising practices might be overcome is especially critical for increasing protection for those most likely to internalize the ideals portrayed by advertising, such as young women and children (e.g., Henderson-King et al 2001; Levine 1999).

The task of this research is to examine the boundary conditions of positive and negative impacts of idealized images on young women. Whereas most research attention has been devoted to the negative effects of idealized images on self evaluations among young women (see review, Groesz et al. 2002), we are interested in examining the mechanism and processes that gives rise to other observations that exposure to idealized images can enhance self perceptions (e.g., Henderson-King et al. 2001; Meyers and Biocca 1992). Employing the framework of social comparison theory, we propose that social comparison process can take place via either an implicit or an explicit route. With increased exposure to idealized images, women internalize the social and normative pressures to be thin and to achieve the standards of idealized images; and automatically engage in social comparison when exposed to an idealized image. This upward social comparison, when taking place automatically, or outside viewers’ awareness (implicit social comparison), can lower viewers’ self-perception and body satisfaction and lead to a contrast effect. However, when taking place within the scope of viewers’ attention and awareness, anexplicit social comparison will allow viewers’ to engage in conscious efforts torepair and boost self-esteem through counter-argument. Such an explicit social comparison, therefore, will lead to more positive self-perceptions and enhanced body satisfaction, resulting in anassimilation effect.

We tested these propositions with three experiments. Experiment 1 explored the role of mode of exposure to idealized images in triggering differential social comparison processes. Our expectation was that implicit exposure to idealized images would trigger an implicit social comparison process, resulting in a contrast effect. Conversely, we expected that explicit exposure to idealized images would stimulate an explicit social comparison process, resulting in an assimilation effect. Experiment 2 employed a semantic priming procedure in the form of a sentence unscrambling task developed by Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996). Our goal was to examine how the impact of implicit versus explicit exposure to idealized female images on body perceptions and social comparison might be moderated by the activation of an interpretive frame through priming. We predicted that when an implicit mode of exposure triggers an implicit social comparison, activation of a positive interpretive frame for slenderness would reinforce the thin female ideal. Thus, activation of positive interpretive frames through priming should produce more negative self-ratings than when the priming task activates a negative interpretive frame for slenderness. We further predicted that when an explicit mode of exposure triggers an explicit social comparison, the occurrence of the social comparison process within consciousness would prevent the priming task from affecting self-evaluations. Experiment 3 extended the results obtained in Experiment 2, testing whether devoting cognitive resources to the attractiveness of idealized females does reduce the negative consequences of exposure to such images.

In combination, our results reveal that whether exposure to idealized female images has negative consequences for a female viewer’s body image and self-esteem critically depends on conscious strategies that are made possible through explicit social comparison. In explicit exposure mode, our results suggest that individuals devote cognitive resources to processing the attractiveness of the image, allowing them to engage in counter-arguments to defend themselves against this unfavourable social comparison and allowing them to override the interpretive frame activated by the priming task. As a result, exposure to those images produces no negative effect on body self-esteem. In contrast, in implicit exposure mode, cognitive resources are devoted to processing aspects of the images other than their attractiveness, making individuals more susceptible to both an implicit social comparison process and to a positive interpretive frame activated by the priming task. Both of these influences, in turn, stimulate lower body perception ratings.

Conceptual Framework: A Dual Process of Social Comparison and Consequence

Research that examines the impact of media images on self-perception has found that people do engage in social comparison when exposed to idealized images (Richins, 1991; Smeesters & Mandel, 2006; Stapel & Suls, 2004). Not surprisingly, however, research that has examined the impact of social comparison to idealized images has produced mixed results. On the one hand, exposure to idealized images has been found to lead to increased body satisfaction, indicating an assimilation effect (Mills et al., 2002; Henderson-King et al., 2001). On the other hand, exposure to idealized images has been found to lead to decreased body satisfaction, indicating a contrast effect (e.g., Meyers & Biocca, 1992; Richins, 1991; Smeesters Mandel, 2006).

One factor that has been found to moderate the impact of social comparison to idealized images is the mode of social comparison: explicit versus implicit (Stapel & Suls, 2004). Mainly, when social comparison is made explicit (e.g. “Are you more or less attractive than the person in the photograph?”), this explicit comparison, generally, leads to the activation of standard-consistent information and an assimilation effect. That is, people report more favorable self-judgments when an upward comparison is made(Stapel & Suls, 2004). In contrast, when merely presented with an idealized image, without the requirement to engage in social comparison, this implicit comparison, generally, leads to the activation of standard-inconsistent information and a contrast effect. Meaning that, people report less favorable self-judgments when an upward comparison is made (Stapel & Suls, 2004).

However, limited research has been done to address how differential social comparison takes place. We argue that, without a viewer’s awareness, exposure to idealized images can unconsciously activate upward social comparison processes (Bargh 1994; 2002; Bargh et al. 2001; Bargh and Ferguson 2000). Such implicit social comparison will tend to produce a decrease in the viewer’s self esteem (Richins 1991), representing a contrast effect in their self evaluation (Stapel and Koomen 2001). However, when the viewer is made aware of the social comparison process (explicit social comparison), they can 1) dismiss the relevance of comparison standard (Henderson-King et al 2001); 2) denigrate comparison targets (Engeln-Maddox 2005; Duke 2002); and 3) correct the bias represented by the unusually high standard set by the comparison target (i.e., extremely attractive models) when making self-evaluations (Schwartz, 2004, Kang and Herr 2006).This explicit social comparison process, accompanied by counter-arguing which depends onthe availability of cognitive resources, will result in an increase in the viewer’s self esteem, thereby producing an assimilation effect. We test these key propositions in three experiments.

Experiment 1

The aim of the first experiment was to uncover these two social comparison processes by manipulating the mode of exposure to idealized images. To achieve this end, when presented with female images, participants were required to either perform an attractiveness judgment (explicit task) or a sunglasses judgment (implicit task). Upon arrival, participants were misinformed that they would be taking part in three separate computer mediated experiments. In reality, they participated in three phases of the same experiment. The first task required participants to make one of two types of judgments in response to a series of female photographs. A second, filler task required participants to unscramble the words of a sentence. Finally, the third task required participants to complete the Life Style Inventory Questionnaire as well as the Body Esteem Scale (BES; Franzoi & Shields, 1984).

Design

Mode of exposure.The influence of the mode of exposure to idealized images on body satisfaction was examined by manipulating the type of photograph judgment that participants made during the first task. During this initial phase of the experiment, all groups of participants were presented with the same series of female photographs. One group of participants was required to make an attractiveness judgment based on a 7-point scale rating ranging from 1 (unattractive) to 7 (attractive). Another group of participants was required to make a judgment about which of two pairs of sunglasses were most suitable for the female presented in each of the photographs. For the sunglasses judgment, participants were presented with the female photograph along with two photographs of randomly chosen sunglasses. The participants were simply instructed to choose the sunglasses that best-suited the facial shape of each woman appearing in the photographs.