{"title":"When Appearance Social Comparison Benefits Women’s Body Satisfaction: Examining the Effects of Viewing Lean Sports","authors":"Y. Yang, Zizhuo Yin","doi":"10.1080/15205436.2023.2227620","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT While media representations of female athletes in lean sports often lead to negative body image perceptions in female audiences, media images depicting athletes playing sports may generate positive responses with respect to body image. Derived from the two lines of scholarship in sports media effects, this between-subjects, online experiment tests the effects of viewing images of female athletes playing lean sports (gymnastics, diving, artistic swimming, figure skating, and cheerleading). Results showed that female viewers (N = 625) engaged in greater appearance social comparison after viewing the images of female athletes playing lean sports (versus the control images), which in turn, was positively associated with their body satisfaction. Different levels of thinness and muscularity of female athletes in the media images did not significantly affect female viewers’ appearance social comparison or body satisfaction. Notably, post hoc analyses revealed several different findings across three age groups of women audiences (young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults). Overall, this study sheds light on the positive impact of appearance social comparison after viewing lean sports. Furthermore, the findings indicate the importance of focusing on athlete performance in media practice in relation to lean sports.","PeriodicalId":47869,"journal":{"name":"Mass Communication and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mass Communication and Society","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2023.2227620","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT While media representations of female athletes in lean sports often lead to negative body image perceptions in female audiences, media images depicting athletes playing sports may generate positive responses with respect to body image. Derived from the two lines of scholarship in sports media effects, this between-subjects, online experiment tests the effects of viewing images of female athletes playing lean sports (gymnastics, diving, artistic swimming, figure skating, and cheerleading). Results showed that female viewers (N = 625) engaged in greater appearance social comparison after viewing the images of female athletes playing lean sports (versus the control images), which in turn, was positively associated with their body satisfaction. Different levels of thinness and muscularity of female athletes in the media images did not significantly affect female viewers’ appearance social comparison or body satisfaction. Notably, post hoc analyses revealed several different findings across three age groups of women audiences (young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults). Overall, this study sheds light on the positive impact of appearance social comparison after viewing lean sports. Furthermore, the findings indicate the importance of focusing on athlete performance in media practice in relation to lean sports.
期刊介绍:
Mass Communication and Society" mission is to publish articles from a wide variety of perspectives and approaches that advance mass communication theory, especially at the societal or macrosocial level. It draws heavily from many other disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, law, and history. Methodologically, journal articles employ qualitative and quantitative methods, survey research, ethnography, laboratory experiments, historical methods, and legal analysis.