• DOI:10.1080/15298868.2011.639549
• Corpus ID: 143048134

Searching Out the Ideal: Awareness of Ideal Body Standards Predicts Lower Global Self-esteem in Women

@article{Balcetis2013SearchingOT,
  title={Searching Out the Ideal: Awareness of Ideal Body Standards Predicts Lower Global Self-esteem in Women},
  author={Emily Balcetis and Shana Cole and Marie B. Chelberg and Mark Alicke},
  journal={Self and Identity},
  year={2013},
  volume={12},
  pages={113 - 99}
}

• E. Balcetis, Shana Cole, +1 author M. Alicke
• Published 1 January 2013
• Psychology
• Self and Identity

Does awareness of female body ideals affect women's global self-esteem? We measured awareness of ideal standards for beauty via two approaches. As one approach, participants (55 undergraduate women) self-reported their general propensity to be aware of society's thin ideal standard. As a second approach, we measured visual attention orienting to ideal standards; we covertly measured participants' eye movements to peers' purported ideal standards. Self-reported awareness predicted lower baseline self-esteem; this relationship was mediated by internalization of the thin ideal. Awareness as assessed through attention orienting to peers' ideal standards predicted decreases in global self-esteem, above the effects of self-reported awareness, internalization, and actual measures of physical fitness. Implications for awareness of ideal standards and the media's portrayal of the thin ideal are discussed.