When Appearance Social Comparison Benefits Women’s Body Satisfaction: Examining the Effects of Viewing Lean Sports

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.