Zero Is Not A Size: Model’s Body Size’s Effect on Women’s Body-focused Anxiety and Advertising Effectiveness

by Isabel Luisa O. Acosta, 2007-49035

Introduction

“Am I fat?” That is one question that often bombards the female mind (and well, the minds of the people they pester it with). We have all heard this question before –it is common, and familiar to us all. It is a question we answer mindlessly, half-heartedly or dishonestly because we know that the person is merely asking for some form of social approval. It is a shallow and superficial question that must be answered approvingly or else, all hell will go lose. But maybe we are hearing the question wrong. Maybe we should look at the question from another perspective. What IS the concept of fat? Who determines what is fat and what is not? How did this idea become so universal? The what and the who is unclear now, but the how can be answered by one word: Media.

Media and beauty have been associated with each other for as long as anyone can remember. All media are constructions, and all media were constructed to translate society’s imposed definition of beauty. Each element that comprises a form of media was constructed and was placed there for a specific purpose –there are messages behind every used element. For example, in advertisements, the choice of the model, the type of font, the colors used, and even the font size are heavily thought out for they must send the right message to the consumers. The consumer’s perception of such elements is crucial and significant to the success of the product, so advertising companies must get the equation of elements right.

The advertising industry has often used the argument that “ "thinness" sells, whereas "fatness" does not.” This argument does not have any empirical evidence though. Empirical studies do state that “physical attractiveness of a model in an advertisement increases consumers' positive attitudes toward the product, their willingness to purchase,” but only a number of studies have supported the idea that body size translates to advertisement effectiveness. In the featured article, Halliwell and Dittmar (2004) explored the impact of using models of different body types to the female consumer’s body image and to the effectiveness of the advertisement. Does the choice of body type featured in the advertisement have any effect on the audience’s perception of the product and the audience’s perception of themselves? Does exposure to a certain body type have any effect on both areas? Is it true that displaying very thin models as the ideal makes for better advertising? Is the thin ideal really detrimental to adult women? These are some of the questions the study tries to explore.

Methodology

The participants

Snowball sampling through email was used to recruit the female, non-student participants. Previous studies have limited their sample to young student samples, so this study used a diverse sample with a wider age range. This is to test whether the negative effects experienced after exposure to the thin ideal are restricted to the youth or if it extends to adult women. A total of 202 women participated in the study. Their age range was 19-67 years old, with a mean age of 30.8 years (SD = 9.20) and a median age of 28. The sample’s average BMI was 23.31 (SD = 3.67, range 16.6 (underweight) to 44.9 (obese)), categorized as normal. The researchers made sure there were no significant demographic differences and BMI differences between the three experimental conditions.

Materials

Advertising images

The advertisements constructed for the study were advertisements for deodorants. There were two deodorant brands: Gold and Jewel. Mundane slogans were employed in order to focus the advertising power to the images ("A gentle new anti-perspirant for women" and "Dry and effective protection"). For the control condition, images of two landscapes—a sand dime and a meadow—were selected obtained from magazines and scanned into a computer. These, along with images of deodorant bottles and slogans were present on the ads. For the experimental advertisement conditions, images of two models featured in recent, popular women magazines were selected because they were good examples of the thin ideal displayed in the media. According to a leading modeling agency, the mean age of models is 24.05 inches, or approximately a U.S. size 2. Models used in these conditions were assumed to fall under that size category and were used for the thin model ads. The same model images were used in the average-size condition. Computer imaging techniques were used to stretch the thin model’s images 25% of their body mass, producing models w an approximately 30 inches waist or a U.S. size 12-14. The images selected had to fulfill some requirements, so that the computer "stretching" would produce realistic images. They had to be full length, facing the camera, in form-fitting clothes, with long loose hair.

Measures

Different scales were used to test the participant’s societal attitudes towards appearance and body-focused anxiety.

The Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ) is a 14-item six point Likert scale that measures the participant’s awareness or internalization of sociocultural attitudes to appearance. Body dissatisfaction can moderate vulnerability to media. Previous studies have found that women who were satisfied with their bodies did not report sensitive weight concern. The researches suggested that either awareness (awareness of the importance society places on appearance and thinness) or internalization (incorporation of this importance in one’s personal belief system) moderated effects of media exposure. They hypothesized that intemalization is a stronger predictor of body image disturbance than awareness, and that it may act as possible moderator of media exposure in the study.

The Physical Appearance State and Trait Anxiety Scale (PASTAS) was used to assess anxiety associated with various body sites (for the purpose of the study, the scale was shortened to include only weight related body sites). The participants rated their anxiety level about weight-related body sites “right now” on a six-point scale, ranging from not at all anxious (1) to extremely anxious (6).

Procedure

Participants were recruited through email by twenty women who personally know the first author. These women were directed to a website which featured a carefully constructed cover story about advertising and consumer preferences. Recruited participants were asked to forward the invite to other women who were likely to participate in the study. The study was introduced to the participants as a study concerning women's consumer preferences with regard to advertising. Since the study needed to find out the kinds of women who prefer particular types of ads, the participants were asked to answer questions about their personal attitudes and beliefs. After they see the introductory webpage, the next link randomly linked to one of the three experimental conditions.

The participants were directed to answer the SATAQ. Filler items that asked them about values in society and their individual attitudes were inserted in the SATAQ, so that the purpose of the measure will not be revealed. Next, the participants were presented the first advertisement, which featured either a thin model, an average-size model or no model. After viewing the first ad, participants indicated their attitudes to it, their attitudes to the brand, and their intentions to purchase the product. This was followed by the presentation of the second advertisement, and the participants were required to make the same ratings. Afterwards, to support the cover story, participants indicated which advertisements they liked more and gave brief open-ended explanations for their choices. After this, the participants were asked to answer a few questions about how tense they currently feel. Included in these set of questions were the PASTAS weight-related questions. Finally, the participants were asked to state in their own words what they thought the purpose of the study was, in order to check if their awareness of the study’s intention affected their responses. They also completed a demographic profile that asked for their age, income, relationship status, and weight and height (for the BMI computation).

Results

The researchers found that four main findings:

1. Internalization of sociocultural attitudes concerning appearance moderated the impact of advertising images on body-focused anxiety such that anxiety in women low on intemalization was not affected by the size of the models in advertising, while body-focused anxiety in women high on internalization was.
2. Women who internalized sociocultural pressures concerning appearance experienced greater anxiety following exposure to thin models than when exposed either to average-size models or landscapes.
3. There was no difference in levels of body-focused anxiety following exposure to averaged-size models or to no models, regardless of level of internalization. Furthermore, these effects were not moderated by women's age or BMI.
4. There was no significant difference between the thin and the average-size models in terms of perceived advertising effectiveness. Thus, models' body sizes by themselves did not influence advertising effectiveness.

Insights and recommendations

I think this study successfully demonstrates how perception has important and profound applications to our daily lives. The images we perceive in forms of media are not passively registered in our minds; their assigned subconscious meaning is integrated with our already formed notions of the world. The images of the models in the advertisements were experienced through the sense of sight, were transduced, processed and perceived. They were recognized and classified according to and based on our attitudes and assumptions about beauty and appearance, and all these elicited a response –body-focused anxiety or none.

I was satisfied with the design of the study. The study employed simple methods to explore such weighty issues. The researchers were meticulous about controlling for confounding variables. Steps were undertaken to control for attractiveness, to exclude participants whose correct idea of the purpose of the study affected their responses, to control for demand characteristics (participants were only asked to rate their body image after exposure, instead of before and after), and the like. They used scales that were relevant to measuring the variables they correlated with model size and these scales had high reliability values (.63-.94). The only thing I did not like about the design was the way the researchers selected the participants to be included in the study. The fact that the twenty women who recruited participants personally new the first author could have had an effect on who they decided to send the email to. Also, the participants were asked to forward the email to other women they feel would likely participate in the study. That qualification is a huge risk for a biased sample that incorrectly represents the population. A more random and unbiased system of selecting participants should have been employed.

Ultimately though, the study really impressed me. It is startling to discover that model size matters for body related anxiety, but that it does not significantly influence advertising effectiveness. Apparently, the threshold level for ideal model size can go as far as to accommodate a 30 inches waistline or U.S. women’s sizes 12-14, or possibly even father –without compromising the product’s salability. Why then is there a need to employ such unrealistically thin models who do not even correctly represent the majority of the female population? Advocating such irrational diminutive sizes as the ideal size does not help female consumers in anyway –it only functions to further oppress women. According to my Sociology teaching, establishing an ideal modelesque size suggests that women, because they are inferior, are only allowed to occupy a tiny space in society. Such an idealization should be challenged, countered and changed and this study does just that. It provided empirical evidence for a marketing strategy or idealization that no one has questioned out loud. It is also important to note that steps can be undertaken to soften the negative effects of false media messages. The study suggests that lowering women's levels of internalization could protect them from the potential negative impact of advertising. Conferences in schools, in the workplace or in the community about separating false idealizations of beauty from our personal system of beliefs should be undertaken. Other forms of advocacies that can inform people of this, like the Internet, music or fashion can also be applied.

It is also important to note that not only teenage girls are affected by the body size imposition of media. This makes the issue even more problematic because it has a far-reaching effect, in terms of its audience. The study also emphasizes that short-term exposure to advertisements advocating unrealistic model sizes already instills anxiety in the viewer. Repeated exposure must have more problematic effects and so steps must be undertaken to counter this spread of such oppressive idealizations quickly.

The study basically asserts that, “it is the thinness of the models used in advertising, rather than their attractiveness, that is problematic as far as women's weight-related anxiety is concerned.” Perhaps a future study can focus on appearance-related anxiety and from there create a holistic empirical foundation for transforming media and its constructions.

Featured article: Halliwell, E., & Dittmar, H. (2004). Does Size Matter? The Impact of Model's Body Size on Women's Body-Focused Anxiety and Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology , 23 (1), 104-122.