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

Abstract

The present investigation examined the extent to which commercial TV ads that promote a “pro-esteem” attitude regarding women’s appearance can improve female viewers’ appreciation of their personal beauty. It also questioned whether a professionally produced movie depicting hefty, “real women” celebrating their personal beauty could improve female viewers’ body-esteem. The 2 x 2 factorial research design in this experiment tested effects of complementary versus contravening messages regarding feminine beauty along pro-esteem and pro-thin message orientation. It compared group measures of body-esteem, before and after participants’ exposure to test clips. It also tested effects of “non-ad” messages on viewers’ body esteem to examine viewers’ responses to entertainment or commercial fare that invites different types of attentiveness and information processing. On a conceptual level, researchers referred to Petty and Cacioppo’s (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model to predict and explain how female viewers’ involvement and attentiveness to persuasive information influenced their body-esteem. Results of this experiment indicate that test messages triggered issue-relevant thinking among viewers who watched pro-esteem TV ads and movies; both groups experienced an increase in body-esteem. Images of thin models did not provoke a drop in body-esteem among female viewers who focused their thoughts on a product argument. However, images of thin female provoked a steep drop in body-esteem among female viewers who reached conclusions about a Sports Illustrated movie that did not explicitly communicate a clear central issue. Researchers also referred to Leary’s (1999) Sociometer Theory to explain how female viewers’ attentiveness to message cues and message characteristics connoting high relational evaluation improved or worsened these viewers’ body esteem. Results indicate that viewer’s issue-relevant thinking (Petty and Cacioppo, 2986) and relational thinking about their physical appearance (Leary, 1999) occurred simultaneously and correspondingly as “co-effects.”