The Influence of Exposure to Media Images on Body Satisfaction of Males and Females

Body satisfaction of male and female university students was examined after exposure to thin- ideal or neutral media images. Male and female participants were divided into either the thin ideal or the neutral condition groups. It was predicted that exposure to thin ideal images would lead to lower body satisfaction scores than neutral images and that women would experience lower scores than men. Participants were twenty female and twenty male students at the University of Western Ontario. Participants were given a sheet of media images then asked to fill out a booklet measuring body satisfaction. No significant main effect was found between media images but a significant main effect was found between gender F{\\,36)= 12,99, /7<0.05, partial ri^= 0.26. No significant interaction effect was found between gender and media images. An assessment of the study's effectiveness and possible issues were discussed as well as topics for future studies.