Although many women are concerned about the impact of skinny models in fashion magazines, a new study concludes that using plus-sized models can also have an impact on the self-esteem of the women who view these ads:

• Researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Cologne in Germany, and Erasmus University in the Netherlands asked female students to assess advertisements featuring models of different sizes.
  
• The thinnest participants experienced increased self-esteem when they viewed models of any size because they identified positively with the thinner ones and saw themselves as different from the overweight ones.
  
• Overweight participants felt a drop in self-esteem, no matter what size the models were.
  
• The normal weight women in the study shifted the most in self-esteem depending on what images they saw.
  
• Moderately thin models made them feel good, and moderately heavy models make them worry that they were overweight.

"We show it is not just the size of the models in the ads but also the relative distance between the consumer's size and the model's size that affect self-esteem, said Dr. Naomi Mandel, a professor at ASU.

The study appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Labels: media_influences, self-esteem

Posted By: Aspen/CRC