CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY - ASSIGNMENT

Critique On :
The Impact of Body Diversity vs Thin-
Idealistic Media Messaging on Health
Outcomes: An Experimental Study

Submitted By:

Naziya Zaina Naufal

Msy417

MSc. Psychology (3rd Sem)

Submitted To:

Dr. Palayoor Benyne Jos

Rajagiri College of Social Sciences

The impact of body diversity vs thin-idealistic media messaging on health outcomes: an

experimental study

By : Sarah-Jane Stewart & Jane Ogden

The media plays a pivotal role in fostering the development of body dissatisfaction

through thin-idealistic imagery. The negative impact of thin-idealistic media messaging can

be damaging to those across the weight span; however, in light of the rise in global obesity

prevalence, efforts need to be made to ensure a body diversity approach is taken to increase

body satisfaction, health behaviours and decrease weight bias. Interventions to achieve this

include approaches to improve media criticality and warning labels.

The present study therefore aimed to evaluate the impact of exposure to body

diversity and thin-ideal intervention videos on health outcomes; body satisfaction, body

compassion, internalisation of the thin-ideal, weight bias and behavioural intentions to eat

more healthily, exercise more and successfully manage weight. Due to the protective role of

media literacy against the negative impact of thin-idealistic media messaging (Berel & Irving,

1998; Yamamiya et al., 2005), media literacy was included as a covariate in subsequent

analyses. It was hypothesised that exposure to the body diversity intervention video would

increase body satisfaction and body compassion, and decrease behavioural intentions, the

internalisation of the thin-ideal and weight bias; and that exposure to the thin-ideal

intervention would decrease body satisfaction and body compassion, and increase

behavioural intentions, the internalisation of the thin-ideal and weight bias.

allocated to one of three conditions: body diversity; the thin ideal; control. The independent

variables were therefore intervention condition (body diversity, thin-ideal and control), and

time (baseline vs. post-intervention). The dependent variables were body satisfaction, body

compassion, internalisation of the thin-ideal, weight bias, and behavioural intentions (healthy

eating, exercise and weight management). Media literacy was a covariate.

Participants : One hundred and sixty female participants from the general population were

recruited from a social media advertisement for a research study investigating women’s

beliefs about their bodies. The mean age of participants was 28.2 years (SD = 10.8, range =

16–74). The majority of the sample was white (n = 137, 85.6%), 9 were Asian (5.6%), 3 were

Black (1.9%) and 11 classified themselves as other (6.9%). Participants also provided their

self reported BMI classification; 6 participants reported being underweight (3.8%), 118

reported being of healthy weight (73.8%), 30 reported being overweight (18.8%) and 6

reported being obese (3.8%).

The Intervention : The authors selected all intervention videos from the internet. The body

diversity and thin-ideal videos were commercially developed videos, so consideration was

taken to ensure these were reflective of construct definitions in the literature. The body

diversity and thin-ideal videos were matched on similar exercise levels and having an upbeat

tempo. Participants were randomly allocated into one of the following conditions: Body

Diversity, The Thin Ideal and Control.

The measures used were demographics, media literacy, body compassion, body and

face satisfaction, internalisation of thin ideal, weight bias and behavioural intentions.
 Findings demonstrated that those exposed to body diversity imagery showed

significantly lower levels of weight bias post-intervention compared with baseline and those

in the other intervention groups. This finding supports prior research demonstrating that

repeated exposure to larger body sizes can shift perceptions on body size preferences, and the

tolerance and acceptance of obesity (Boothroyd et al., 2012; Robinson & Kirkham, 2014).

This therefore supports calls for the media presenting more diverse and realistic images, and

indicates that a more diverse presentation of attractiveness ideals could be helpful to reduce

stigmatising attitudes towards those with surplus body weight. Through processes of

internalisation and upward social comparisons, sociocultural theory contends that thin-

idealistic media messaging creates and exacerbates negative body appraisals (Thompson et

al., 1999; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004; Tiggemann & Miller, 2010).

Sociocultural theory can therefore be useful in understanding how reducing thin-ideal

discourse may be effective in reducing weight bias. Pressure to conform to thin-ideals can

lead to the internalisation of anti-fat and stigmatising attitudes towards those with overweight

and obesity through the implicit messaging that thinness equates to happiness, success and

gain (Rodgers, 2016). Therefore, removing the thin-idealistic messaging and replacing it with

body diversity images could start to challenge stigmatised attitudes towards body weight.

Weight normalisation theories can also be helpful to understand these findings. An

increasing body of research has demonstrated that exposure to a broader range of body sizes

leads to the normalisation of larger body weights (Oldham & Robinson, 2016; Robinson &

Kirkham, 2014). Internalisation could therefore function in a more constructive way.

Increased exposure to a range of diverse imagery that challenges stereotypical thin-ideal

beauty standards, presented in an affirmative way, could lead to the internalisation of a more

diverse sense of what is beautiful. This could therefore lead to individuals appraising both the

bodies of themselves and of other people too, in a more positive light.

group had significantly greater intentions to eat healthily compared with baseline and those in

the other intervention groups. It has previously been suggested that body dissatisfaction

might not always be universally deleterious; some degree of negative body image could be

helpful to motivate individuals towards engaging in health behaviours (Heinberg et al., 2001).

Whist this view has been widely refuted (Puhl et al., 2007; Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015),

the results of the present study suggest that some degree of exposure to thin-idealistic media

messaging increases intentions to eat healthily, whereas exposure to body diversity reduces

these intentions. It would therefore be important for future research to be conducted to

determine at what point thin-idealistic imagery becomes damaging to consumers’ motivations

to engage in health behaviours, by addressing the complex relationship between body

dissatisfaction, and motivation and participation in health behaviours. Furthermore, whether

this translates to actual eating behaviour or not needs to be determined before firm

conclusions on this are drawn.

There were no significant effects of the interventions on exercise intentions or

changes in body satisfaction contrary to previous research (Hendrickse et al., 2020; Mulgrew

et al., 2018). There were also no significant effects for body compassion, internalisation of

the thin-ideal and weight management intentions, contrary to predictions. It is possible that

for these variables, a 1-minute intervention video was not sufficient time to elicit an effect.

Findings from this study hold important implications for improving the wellbeing and body

confidence of all women who are exposed to media. In particular, these findings lend

empirical validation that campaigns such as ‘This Girl Can’ are successful in promoting body

diversity and reducing the stigmatisation of those with larger body sizes. Increasing body

diversity across the media would be beneficial for the reduction of weight bias, which in turn

could improve general wellbeing and preclude the development of body image problems
(Bury et al., 2016; Derenne & Beresin, 2018; Halliwell et al., 2005; Mayer-Brown et al.,

2016; Moreno-Domínguez et al., 2019; Pedersen et al., 2018; Robinson et al., 2017; Slevec &

Tiggemann, 2011). Body diversity could be integrated into existing programmes to manage

problems with body image and eating behaviour.

Limitations

 The majority of the female participants in this study were white, which could restrict

the generalisability of these findings. This is relevant given that many of the women

in both the body diversity intervention and thin-ideal intervention represent those

from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

 The age range of the sample was wide and included participants up to 74 years. Given

that the videos used are available to all ages the aim was to test their impact on their

‘natural’ audience. However, it is acknowledged that this may have reduced the

capacity for social comparisons given that the age of the women portrayed in the

videos was younger than this.

 It is possible that the participants could have guessed the aims of the study, and

therefore presented more socially desirable responses.

 Whilst the interventions emphasised being active the aspects of body image assessed

tended to focus on static components.

 This study only evaluated the impact of short-term exposure to each of the

intervention groups. Further research could therefore include a more diverse sample,

directly assess the role of social comparisons, broaden the notion of body image and

assess the repeated impact of such interventions over a longer period of time.
 In conclusion, although previous research has highlighted the potential impact of

changing the type of imagery used in the media on measures of body appraisal and behaviour,

research has not yet investigated this with regards to weight bias. Findings indicated a degree

of clinical equipoise; whereby exposure to body diversity images reduced weight bias, and

exposure to the thin-ideal promoted intentions towards healthy eating. These findings

therefore provide empirical evidence for using different types of media imagery in order to

change different health outcomes.

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