P1: JQX

Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

C 2004)
Sex Roles, Vol. 51, Nos. 1/2, July 2004 (

Mere Exposure: Gender Differences in the Negative

Effects of Priming a State of Self-Objectification
Tomi-Ann Roberts1,2 and Jennifer Y. Gettman1

Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) holds that American culture coaxes
women to develop observers views of their bodies. The present study was designed to test
whether a state of self-objectification can be automatically activated by subtle exposure to
objectifying words. A state of self-objectification or of bodily empowerment was primed by
the use of a scrambled sentence task. Womens ratings of negative emotions were higher and
their ratings of the appeal of physical sex lower when primed with self-objectification than
when primed with body competence. Mens ratings were unaffected by the primes. The results
of this study suggest that mere exposure to objectifying media can play a significant role in
the initiation of a self-objectified state along with its attendant psychological consequences
for women.
KEY WORDS: Gender; objectification; media; priming.

The mass media play a central role in American

culture, and are the subject of much scrutiny for their
effects on the behaviors, emotions, and attitudes of
the American public (see Wright & Huston, 1983).
Among the well-documented images that the media
appear to reinforce are gender differences and stereotypes. For example, the media depict different ideals
for male and female bodiesfor men, large and muscular (Winkler & Cole, 1994), and for women, thin and
beautiful (Hamilton & Waller, 1993). Beyond these
differing ideals, however, research shows that the media more often sexually objectify womens bodies than
mens. That is, womens bodies are used to sell merchandise, and are more often depicted in ways that
emphasize their sexuality (e.g., Archer, Iritani, Kimes,
& Barrios, 1983; Solely & Kurzbard, 1986; SommersFlanagan, Sommers-Flanagan, & Davis, 1993).
Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts,
1997) posits that this cultural milieu of sexual objectification functions to socialize girls and women to
1 Department

treat themselves as objects to be evaluated based on

appearance. Girls learn, both directly and vicariously,
that their looks matter, that other peoples evaluations of their physical appearance can determine how
they are treated and, ultimately, affect their social and
economic life outcomes. The theory argues that girls
and women therefore can become preoccupied with
their own physical appearance as a way of anticipating and controlling their treatmentan effect termed
self-objectification. Self-objectification is theorized
to lead to a variety of emotional and behavioral costs,
which researchers have begun to demonstrate (e.g.,
Fredrickson, Noll, Roberts, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998;
McKinley & Hyde, 1996; Noll & Fredrickson, 1998).
In the present study we sought to determine if exposure to sexually objectifying words alone can lead to
a state of self-objectification and hence an array of
negative psychological consequences for women.

Theorized Emotional Costs of Self-Objectification

of Psychology, Colorado College, Colorado Springs,

Colorado.
whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of
Psychology, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache la Poudre, Colorado
Springs, Colorado 80903; e-mail: troberts@coloradocollege.edu.

Objectification theory proposes that self-objectification carries psychological costs (Fredrickson &
Roberts, 1997). First and foremost, it leads to a form

2 To

17

C 2004 Plenum Publishing Corporation

0360-0025/04/0700-0017/0

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

18
of self-consciousness that is characterized by a
preoccupation with the bodys outward appearance
as opposed to its health or functioning. That is, a
self-objectified point-of-view on the body is thought
to be more from a third-person perspective, focusing on observable body qualities, than from a
first-person perspective, focusing on nonobservable
body attributes. This particular perspective on the
self is theorized to increase the opportunity for
negative emotions such as shame and anxiety. These
emotions are further theorized to contribute to a
variety of mental and physical problems, such as
eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, and unipolar
depression (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).

Roberts and Gettman

a swimsuit or a sweater. They found that trying on
swimwear led women, but not men, to experience
body shame. Perhaps this is not surprising; swimwear
reveals the bodys contours and the media often
depict idealized womens bodies in revealing clothing
(e.g., Solely & Kurzbard, 1986). Hence, viewing ones
own body in a swimsuit undoubtedly highlights the
difference between it and those media idealized images very obviously. But could more subtle reminders
of the body as viewed by others lead to the shame
outcomes of self-objectification? Thus we sought
to discover whether shame could result from mere
exposure to self-objectifying words.

Disgust
Shame
When individuals evaluate themselves relative
to cultural ideals and find that they fail to live up
to these ideals, shame is experienced (Lewis, 1992;
Tangney, Miller, Flicker, & Barlow, 1996). Tangney
(1993) argued that people who are ashamed feel a
sense of exposure and a heightened concern with
others opinions. Objectification theory posits that
the continual comparison many girls and women
make to media-proliferated body ideals is a recipe
for shamespecifically body shame (Fredrickson &
Roberts, 1997). Western culture defines the ideal body
as ultrathin, a body that is impossible for most women
to attain (e.g., Noll & Fredrickson, 1998). Although
only a minority of women in the United States are
actually overweight (31% of adults over 20 and 15%
of adolescents are overweight, according to epidemiological data from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 2002), the majority report feeling fat
and express this as a personal failure, which has been
shown to lead to feelings of shame (Crandall, 1994).
Feminist theorists have described this as a cycle where
the dominant culture constructs the ideal body and
encourages women to monitor their own bodies as
objects, and, as a result, women feel shame when they
do not live up to these standards (McKinley, 1998).
Evidence supports the relationship between selfobjectification and shame. For example, McKinley
and Hyde (1996) found that women who score high
on a scale of body surveillance (i.e., they monitor the
body and compare it to cultural ideals) experience
more body shame. Fredrickson and colleagues (1998)
and Gapinski, Brownell, and LaFrance (2003) experimentally manipulated a state of self-objectification
by assigning participants to try on and evaluate either

Darwin (1872/1965) claimed that disgust evolved

to assist in food selection and disease avoidance, thus
it serves a strictly biological function. However, the
disgust response is not apparent from birth, which
implies that the emotion is socially developed with
specific social functions (Haidt, Rozin, McCauley, &
Imada, 1997; Rozin & Fallon, 1987). Miller (1997)
suggested that disgust is intimately connected to the
creation of culture. Social judgments create boundaries between clean and filthy, and between pure
and tarnished, and those boundaries are reflected in
the cultures social standards. Hence, people might
find actions such as public urination or chewing food
with ones mouth open disgusting precisely because
they are uncivilized. Self-disgust, then, is similar to
shame in this sense; it can be prompted by a feeling
that one has violated certain socio-moral standards. In
fact, both self-disgust and shame can evoke the feeling
of exposure and the desire to hide (Miller, 1997).
Disgust can play a positive role in the development of a civilized society by internalizing norms
for cleanliness, restraint, and reserve (Miller, 1997).
Unfortunately, it can also become a negative reaction
to violations of these predetermined social standards.
Insofar as many women experience a discrepancy
between their actual body size and their ideal body
size (Fallon & Rozin, 1985), women may become
disgusted with their own bodies because they have
violated a social standard by being unattractive or
overweight, and hence gross. Overweight individuals are perceived as lacking in self-control and
moral discipline (Crandall, 1994). This perception
appears to be especially true for overweight women
(Fallon, 1990; Quinn & Crocker, 1999). Indeed,
it might be argued that the higher standards of

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

Mere Exposure
cleanliness, hairlessness, odorlessness, and beauty
held for women in our culture are a reflection of the
greater burden placed upon women to civilize their
bodies lest they be seen as disgusting by others
(Roberts, Goldenberg, Power, & Pyszczynski, 2002).
Research shows that people can feel a type of
moral self-disgust when they fail at something, are
criticized by their superiors, or are ignored and cutoff
from society (Haidt et al. 1997). Therefore, it is plausible to conclude that the experience of self-disgust
could be an outcome of self-objectification. Fredrickson et al. (1998) found preliminary evidence for such
a conclusion. In their study, women wearing swimsuits
reported feeling more disgust, distaste, and revulsion
than did men, who, in contrast, reported more
lighthearted self-conscious feelings of awkwardness,
silliness, and foolishness when in swimwear. In this
study, we hypothesized that being exposed to certain
words (e.g., thinness, weight, attractive) could initiate
a state of self-objectification and result in increased
feelings of self-disgust for women.

Anxiety
Anxiety about ones appearance is also theorized to be a consequence of self-objectification. Not
knowing when or how ones body will be scrutinized
can lead women to become chronically anxious about
whether their appearance meets cultural ideals. This
type of social-evaluative anxiety is often termed
appearance anxiety (Dion, Dion, & Keelan, 1990),
and, in general, women report higher levels of this
type of anxiety than men do. Further, women with
higher appearance anxiety have been found to have
low self-esteem, high public self-consciousness, and
high audience and test anxiety (Dion et al.). The fact
that women spend millions of dollars each year on
cosmetics, surgery, and weight reduction programs to
try to achieve the ideal body is perhaps an indirect
measure of high levels of appearance anxiety (Jacoby,
1988). And, lest we consider these procedures a
reflection of mere vanity and obsession with beauty,
Dion and colleagues remind us that our culture
emphasizes the importance of appearance for women
far more than for men, and also links it directly to
gaining and maintaining a higher position in society.
Thus far, no empirical evidence has been obtained to
support the prediction that self-objectification leads
to increased anxiety. In this study we sought to determine whether priming a state of self-objectification
would lead to greater levels of appearance anxiety.

19
Sexual Dysfunction
Gender differences in sexuality abound, specifically in sexual behaviors, attitudes, and satisfaction
(for review, see Oliver & Hyde, 1993). For example,
men have a more casual attitude toward sexuality,
whereas women experience more shame/guilt and
anxiety/fear about sexual experiences. Women also
report more overall sexual dissatisfaction in heterosexual relations than men do (Heiman & Verhulst,
1982).
A number of theorists have attempted to explain
why these differences exist by referring to social behaviors, roles, and learning theories. However, objectification theory provides an alternative explanation
for observed gender differences in sexual enjoyment and attitudes toward sex. First, Fredrickson and
Roberts (1997) suggested that the self-conscious body
monitoring that accompanies self-objectification can
create a kind of doubled perspective for many
women, which in turn makes sexual situations less
enjoyable. That is, the self-consciousness that results
from self-objectification can consume valuable mental resources and make it difficult for women to get
into the sexual experience (Fredrickson & Roberts,
1997). Second, decreased sexual interest or more
negative attitudes toward sex may also be a result
of increases in the body shame, appearance anxiety,
and disgust that are theorized to accompany a selfobjectified state in women. Researchers have indeed
found that self-conscious body monitoring, often
referred to as spectatoring, can be one significant
impediment to womens sexual enjoyment (Masters
& Johnson, 1970). In line with these findings, we predicted that a state of self-objectification would lead
women to report that they would find the physical
aspects of sexthose aspects of sex that focus on the
body, its parts, and its functioningless appealing.
Priming a State of Self-Objectification
The presentation of stereotyped concepts, even
in an ambiguous manner, can activate certain trait
concepts that in turn, will have a passive influence
on the interpretation of subsequent events (Bargh,
Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Chartland & Bargh, 1997;
Srull & Wyer, 1979). The incidental activation of
knowledge structures is referred to as priming. Srull
and Wyer (1979) argued that personality trait terms
are summary labels for broad concepts. They showed
that the presentation of words alone could encode
specific information into memory. They tested this

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

20
theory by presenting participants with word association tasks embedded with concepts related to
kindness or hostility. In a later unrelated task, participants judged an ambiguous, hypothetical situation
according to the stereotype with which they had been
presented. These results showed that readily accessible information does influence future judgments,
even if the information is encoded unknowingly.
Bargh and colleagues (1996) showed that, when
participants were primed with a concept of rudeness
by the ambiguous presentation of specific words
(e.g., bother, annoying, disturb), they interrupted the
experimenter more quickly and frequently than did
participants primed with words that implied politeness. They also found that participants walked down
the hall more slowly after being exposed to words
that invoked images of the elderly (e.g., Florida, grey,
retired). These results suggested that the use of a
generalized trait concept, even in an unrelated event,
carries over and influences the analysis of subsequent
events and even the participants own behaviors.
Might a state of self-objectification be similarly
activated by mere exposure to objectifying words?
And might this activation in turn lead to some of
the predicted consequences of self-objectification for
women? Posovac, Posovac, and Posovac (1998) found
that passive exposure to media images led to increased
weight concern among women, whereas exposure to
realistic attractiveness was less likely to cause increased weight concern. The media images apparently
caused a discrepancy between a female perceivers
conception of her own weight and the standard set
by society, which is similar to the hypothesized cause
of self-objectification. This experiment was informative about which images are likely to cause women to
feel self-objectifiednarrowly defined, exaggerated,
extremely thin images (Posovac et al., 1998). Nearly
all research on media exposure and body concerns has
focused on media images. But might not words also activate self-objectification? In this study, we sought to
explore the impact of exposure to words one might see
on the covers of fashion magazines. Although no studies to date have analyzed the specific words that commonly appear on magazines, Malkin, Wornian, and
Chrisler (1999) showed that 78% of covers of womens
magazines have text related to body appearance.

Hypotheses
The purpose of this investigation was to test
whether exposure to sexually objectifying words

Roberts and Gettman

can lead to the negative consequences predicted by
objectification theory. We hypothesized that priming
a state of self-objectification would negatively affect
womens, but not mens, feelings of shame, selfdisgust, appearance anxiety, and the appeal of sexual
scenarios that emphasize the bodys physicality,
compared to priming with words associated with
body competence and physical functioning.
METHOD
Participants
A total of 160 undergraduate students (70 men
and 90 women) enrolled in an introductory psychology class at a Colorado public university participated
in the study, and were compensated with extra course
credit. The mean age of the participants was 19 years,
with a range of 1730 years old. The sample was
82% (N = 130) European American, 15% Hispanic
(N = 24), and 3% (N = 6) African American. The
participants were randomly assigned to one of three
conditions: self-objectification prime, body competence prime, or control.
Written Materials
Prime
The priming manipulation consisted of a Scrambled Sentence Test (Srull & Wyer, 1979). This manipulation was presented as a test of language ability and
participants were instructed to construct a grammatically correct four-word sentence from a scrambled list
of five words (e.g., were horse legs her slender). For
the two priming conditions, 15 of the 25 items on the
sentence test contained a word that was related either
to a state of self-objectification or of body competence. Words were matched in each priming condition
for equivalence in length, and all were either neutral
or positive in valence. For the self-objectification
priming condition, the words were posing, sexiness,
weight, figure, attractive, glamour, slender, thinness,
appearance, beauty, physique, shapely, desirable, proportional, and elegant. For the body competence priming condition, the words were playing, fitness, health,
stamina, coordinated, endurance, strong, wellness,
feeling, survival, vitality, powerful, durable, balanced,
and energetic. The third, control condition contained
neutral words unrelated to the body: here, tasty,
together, silly, fine, crossed, honesty, music, interesting,

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

Mere Exposure
similar, truthfulness, car, happy, crunchy, Canadian.
The 15 target sentences in each of the conditions had
an equal number of masculine (he or his), feminine (she or her), and plural (they or their)
pronouns, to insure that states of self-objectification
or body competence were primed in both male and
female participants. The rest of the sentences were
fillers, which contained words unrelated to the body
in any way (e.g., orange music his loud is).
Shame and Disgust
The first questionnaire in the packet contained
a series of items concerning the emotional experiences of shame and disgust. Fifteen of the 20
items were drawn from research by Tangney and
colleagues (1996) aimed at distinguishing between
shame (considered a more serious and moral form of
self-consciousness) and embarrassment (considered a
more lighthearted form of self-consciousness). Examples include I want to hide versus I want to be with
others and I see this situation as serious versus I
see this situation as funny. Three of these items refer
directly to the emotion of disgust, and were considered separately as a measure of disgust (e.g., I feel
disgusted with myself vs. I feel pleased with myself).
Items were rated on 5-point scales, anchored by each
of the two statements. Five filler items were included,
that were aimed at tapping emotions such as happiness and anger (e.g., I feel happy vs. I feel sad),
to distract participants from the purpose of the scale.
Internal reliability analysis on the relevant 15-item
shame and disgust scale achieved an alpha coefficient
of .82.
Appeal of Sex
The second measure, the Appeal of Sex Scale
(Goldenberg, Pyszczynski, McCoy, Greenberg, &
Solomon, 1999), is a questionnaire that assesses how
appealing different aspects of the sexual experience
are to the participant. The participants were asked
to rate 20 items on a scale of 1 = not appealing at
all7 = extremely appealing. The measure has two
subscalesone assesses the appeal of the emotional
aspects of sex (e.g., feeling close with my partner, having an emotional connection), and the other assesses
the appeal of the physical aspects of sex (e.g., tasting
sweat, feeling my partners genitals, having an orgasm).
Both subscales were used as dependent measures for
analyses; however, we predicted that the effects of

21
self-objectification would be most prominently seen
for the physical sex subscale, given its emphasis on
the body. Internal reliability analysis revealed Cronbachs alphas of .88 and .86 for the emotional aspects
and physical aspects subscales respectively.
Appearance Anxiety
The final measure was Dion et al.s (1990)
Appearance Anxiety Scale, which assesses the extent
to which participants experience anxiety concerning
their physical appearance. Thirty items such as I
wish that I were better looking and I get nervous
when others comment on my appearance are rated
on a 0 = never4 = almost always scale. Previous
researchers obtained an internal reliability for the
30 items of = .86 and testretest reliability of .89
(Dion et al., 1990). In this study, internal consistency
analysis revealed a Cronbachs alpha of .90.
Procedure
A female experimenter greeted participants, who
were run in groups that ranged in size from 15 to 40.
The experimenter introduced herself as a student who
was representing several psychology professors. The
experiment was described as a test of several different
and unrelated questionnaires for validity, reliability,
and proficiency to insure that they would be useful in
future experiments. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaires in the order in which they
were presented, to follow the directions on the top
of each questionnaire, and to remain quietly seated
after finishing the questionnaires. Participants were
also explained their rights and asked to read and sign
an informed consent form, which was collected beforehand to insure that no identifying materials were
connected to the experimental packets.
When all participants had completed the packet
of written measurements, the experimenter collected
the packets and proceeded to ask several questions
to determine whether or not the manipulation
was obvious. Participants were asked specifically if
they had any suspicions about the purpose of the
scrambled sentence test and the experiment overall.
The scrambled sentence task was not recognized by
any of the participants as a priming manipulation,
and the most common response to the purpose
of the experiment was: Its a study about college
students attitudes concerning body issues. After
the questioning session, the participants were fully

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

22
debriefed as to the purpose and hypothesis of the
experiment and thanked for their help.

Results
Manipulation Check
To check the effectiveness of the newly constructed prime, we conducted a manipulation check.
We expected the self-objectification prime to cause
the participants to feel self-conscious about their
bodies shape, size, or appearance. This hypothesis
was tested by asking 90 participants (48 men and 48
women) to fill out a modified version of the Twenty
Statements Test (TST: Bugental & Zelen, 1950; Kuhn
& McPartland, 1954; see also Bond & Tak-Sing, 1983
and Cousins, 1989) after they completed one of the
two experimental types of scrambled sentence tests
(self-objectification or body competence). The TST
instructs participants as follows: In the 20 blanks below please make 20 different statements about your
self and your identity that complete the sentence I am
. Complete the statements as if you were describing yourself to yourself, not to someone else.
We made use of a TST coding scheme developed
by Fredrickson et al. (1998). Two independent coders
classified responses to the TST into one of five groupings: (a) body shape and size (e.g., I am overweight, I
am tall); (b) other physical appearance (e.g., I am ugly,
I am blonde); (c) physical competence (e.g., I am
strong, I am energetic); (d) traits or abilities (e.g., I am
a procrastinator, I am shy), and (e) states or emotions
(e.g., I am tired, I am content). For the purposes of this
study, we collapsed the first and second categories,
and analyzed the number of body shape and size
and general physical appearance statements in a 2
(prime: self-objectification vs. body competence) 2
(gender) MANOVA. This analysis produced a main
effect, as predicted, for the prime F(1, 91) = 3.89,
p < .05. Participants primed with self-objectification
included an average of 1.92 (SD = 1.40; range: 05)
statements referring to their bodys shape, size, or
appearance, whereas participants primed with body
competence wrote an average of 1.00 (SD = 1.05;
range: 04) such statements. A main effect was also
found for gender, F(1, 91) = 4.47, p < .05; women
included an overall average of 1.51 (SD = 1.34)
statements referring to their bodys shape, size, or
appearance, and men included an average of .98
(SD = 1.22) such statements. No interaction was
found between gender and the prime.

Roberts and Gettman

The MANOVA revealed no effects of the
prime or for gender on the other four categories
from the TST (physical competence; traits/abilities;
states/emotions; and other/uncodable). This confirmed that the prime only affected participants generation of self-statements associated with the bodys
shape, size, and external appearance, and not with
other features of the self. Our participants were unaware that the scrambled sentence task primed
them. Nevertheless, exposing these individuals to
words that highlight the bodys outward appearance,
as opposed to its health and physical functioning,
made salient the appearance aspects of who they are.
Correlations Among Measures of Interest
First, a correlation matrix was run to assess intercorrelations among the variables of interest. A
correlation between shame and appearance anxiety
was observed, r (160) = .43, p < .001, along with a
correlation between disgust and appearance anxiety,
r (160) = .52, p < .001. Furthermore, scores on the
appeal of physical sex measure were negatively correlated with shame, r (160) = .25, p < .01, and with
disgust, r (160) = .29, p < .01.
Differential Effect of Prime on Mens
and Womens Ratings
See Table I for a representation of the means
for men and women for each of the dependent
Table I. Differential Effect of Prime on Men and Women

Shame
Self-objectification
Body competence
Control
Disgust
Self-objectification
Body competence
Control
Appearance anxiety
Self-objectification
Body competence
Control
Appeal of physical sex
Self-objectification
Body competence
Control

Men

Women

2.381
2.332
2.61

2.701,2,3
2.363
2.51

2.11
1.971
2.14

2.591,2
2.022
2.15

1.521,4
1.572,5
1.78

2.061,2,3
1.703
2.084,5

5.131
4.852
4.80

3.911,2,3
4.773
4.23

Note. Means within dependent measures that share a common

superscript are significantly different at the p < .05 level.

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

Mere Exposure
measures. A 2 3 MANOVA was conducted with
gender and condition (self-objectification, body competence, control) as the factors. All significant interactions between gender and condition were followed up
by Tukeys post-hoc tests ( p < .05) of significant differences. Because of the unequal sample sizes of men
and women, Levenes tests for equality of error variances were run for each dependent measure. None of
these tests were significant. The Ns for each condition were: self-objectification (Men = 25, Women =
32), body competence (Men = 23, Women = 31), and
control (Men = 22, Women = 27).
A significant interaction between gender and
condition was found for the shame measure,
F(2, 154) = 4.73, p < .01. Tukeys post-hoc tests revealed that, as predicted, womens shame ratings
were significantly higher in the self-objectification
than in the body competence condition, whereas
mens ratings were not different in these conditions.
Furthermore, womens shame ratings in the selfobjectification condition were higher than mens in
both the self-objectification and body competence
conditions.
The MANOVA revealed only a marginally significant interaction between gender and condition on
ratings of disgust, F(2, 154) = 2.82, p = .06. We nevertheless followed up with Tukeys tests because our a
priori prediction was that women would show a significant difference between priming conditions, whereas
men would not. This is indeed what we found. As
well, womens ratings of disgust were higher in the
self-objectification condition than were mens in the
body competence condition.
A main effect for gender was found on the appearance anxiety measure, F(1, 154) = 14.09, p <
.0005; women (M = 1.96) demonstrated more appearance anxiety across conditions than men did
(M = 1.57). As predicted, there was also an interaction between gender and condition on this measure, F(2, 154) = 3.89, p < .05. Tukeys post-hoc tests
revealed that womens appearance anxiety scores
were significantly different in the self-objectification
and body competence conditions, whereas mens
were not. Further, womens appearance anxiety was
significantly higher than mens in both the selfobjectification and control conditions.
Finally, we explored the effects of the prime on
mens and womens ratings of both subscales of the appeal of sex scale. For the emotional aspects subscale, a
main effect for gender was found, F(1, 154) = 23.59,
p < .001. Women reported significantly greater appeal of the emotional aspects of sex than did men

23
overall (M women = 6.51, vs. M men = 5.77). There
was no main effect for condition, nor (as predicted)
was there an interaction between gender and condition on this subscale. Our a priori prediction focused
on the physical aspects subscale. On this one, there
was a significant effect for gender; women reported
less appeal of the physical aspects of sex than did
men overall (M women = 4.34 vs. M men = 4.98). As
well, and as predicted, there was a significant interaction between condition and gender, F(2, 154) = 3.53,
p < .05. Tukeys tests revealed that, again, womens
ratings of the appeal of physical sex were significantly different in the self-objectification and body
competence conditions, whereas mens were not. Furthermore, womens ratings in the self-objectification
condition were different than mens in both the selfobjectification and the body competence conditions.

DISCUSSION
The present study provides further evidence to
support Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) objectification theory and several of its propositions. Our results
replicate and extend the findings of Fredrickson and
colleagues (1998), where a state of self-objectification
was activated when women wore swimsuits. However,
the priming method used in this study was far more
subtle than the swimsuitsweater method, and our results indicate that a state of self-objectification can
be activated automatically for women by merely encountering words that highlight the bodys physical
appearance, as opposed to its health and functioning.
We believe that, as in the Fredrickson et al. study, the
increased levels of shame and disgust reflect the notion that women were reminded by the prime of the
greater cultural demands placed on them to live up to
culturally prescribed standards of beauty and of their
on-going failure to be able to do so.
Inducing a state of self-objectification led to significantly higher levels of appearance anxiety for
women. This finding extends empirical support for
the predictions of objectification theory (Fredrickson
& Roberts, 1997). If, as theorized, a state of selfobjectification leads to a highly self-conscious state of
mind, then anxiety about ones own appearance, and
whether it meets ever-changing and narrowly defined
beauty ideals, is likely to follow.
Past research on appearance anxiety in women
has found that it correlates positively with social
avoidance, distress, and public self-consciousness
(Dion et al., 1990). It is interesting that these negative

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

24
experiences have been directly linked to the emotions
of shame and disgust (Rozin, Lowery, Imada, & Haidt,
1999; Tangney, 1993). Avoidance, distress, and selfconsciousness could be considered the aftermath of
experiencing negative moral emotions. Therefore,
perhaps the significant increase in appearance anxiety found here is related to the changes in disgust and
shame. At any rate, it is clear that a whole host of
negative self-conscious emotions are experienced by
self-objectified women.
Self-objectification also led to a decrease in the
appeal of the physical aspects of sex. This is the first
evidence that lends support to the prediction that
objectification may contribute to womens sexual
dysfunctions (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). The
words used in the self-objectification prime highlight
the bodys appearance (e.g., weight, attractiveness,
physique), as opposed to its health and functioning
as in the body competence prime. This may have
activated in women a sense of being on display
which in turn may have led to the self-conscious
spectatoring with respect to sexual scenarios that
Masters and Johnson (1970) have identified as a key
barrier to womens comfort with sex.
Furthermore, the shame and disgust many
women experience about their bodies may transfer to
and shape sexual experiences. This argument is supported by the fact that shame and self-disgust in this
study were negatively correlated with the appeal of
physical sex. Oliver and Hyde (1993) have shown that
women experience more shame about sex than men
do, which might lead one to conclude that the correlation is solely due to a gender difference. However, the
current finding of a significant difference on the shame
and sex appeal measures between women primed
with self-objectification and women primed with body
competence implies a more complex relationship, involving the priming of self-objectification. In other
words, these results suggest that self-objectification
may be an important moderating factor in explaining
the gender differences found in attitudes toward sex.
The media often highlight mens casual attitudes
toward sex and their more aggressive and dominant
sexual behavior (Sommers-Flanagan et al., 1993).
Combine this with the medias coverage of sexual
abuse, assault, and harassment cases, and it is clear
why women may have hesitations concerning sexual relationships. We believe the increased anxiety
found in our study may be connected to overexposure
to sexual objectification. Women face a psychological dilemma between living up to beauty ideals, and,
at the same time, preventing inappropriate exposure

Roberts and Gettman

and open invitations (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).
Women are constantly reminded of this dilemma by
the mass media. Perhaps our prime had the same effect, and thus increased anxiety and decreased appeal
of physical sex for women.
The results of our experiment are also consistent
with previous research on the automaticity of attitudes and social cognition. Specifically, others have
shown that once a schema is made more accessible
by the exposure to a prime, the likelihood that it will
be used to interpret new information is increased significantly (e.g., Bargh et al., 1996). However, in order for the priming to be effective, there must be an
original trait concept encoded into the persons memory from past experiences (Srull & Wyer, 1979). In
our case, the concept was self-objectification, and we
found that the activation of this concept for women
in one context resulted in negative self-attitudes and
emotions in a subsequent unrelated context. As in
previous research, our participants were not aware of
the influence of the prime on their self-attitudes. From
our results we can conclude that a significant number of women do have a specific trait concept about
sexual objectification encoded into their memory and
that this trait concept, once activated, carries with it
significant attendant negative emotions and attitudes
toward the self.
Bargh and colleagues (1996) have affirmed that
automatic behavior occurs when we are reminded of
situations that are commonly experienced and have
specific behavioral responses strongly associated
with them. In other words, the schema concerning
the objectification of the female body must be well
developed in order for words alone to generate a
state of self-objectification. It is easy to see why a
schema associated with the words thinness, weight, or
attractive exists when one reflects on the repeated use
of these words by the mass media. Unfortunately, the
mass media may play a bigger role in initiating a state
of self-objectification than we think. If just reading
certain body conscious words can initiate a state of
self-objectification in a laboratory environment, what
are the consequences when these same words are
found dispersed in newspapers and magazines every
day? It is possible that a magazine cover alone could
contain enough words to put even the most casual
female viewer in a state of self-objectification.
Indeed there is indirect evidence that words and
text in mass media may play an especially important
role in initiating self-objectification. Recent research
has shown that print media may play a bigger role in
body dissatisfaction among women than television.

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

Mere Exposure
In one study, girls who showed increased eating disorder symptomatology had experienced significant
increases in their exposure to fashion magazines,
but decreases in their number of hours of television
viewing (Vaughan & Fouts, 2003). Kittler (2003)
demonstrated, further, that the text in print media
may be especially impactful. In her study, objectifying or nonobjectifying images were combined with
objectifying or nonobjectifying text on magazine
covers. Women showed greater self-objectification
when exposed to more objectifying text, regardless
of the images presented on magazine covers.
Much research has elaborated how automatically
primed responses occur, but the question of how often
and to what extent remains to be answered. However,
it is possible to control these automatic influences.
Bargh (1989) and Wegner (1994) have each proposed
that there are three steps to controlling automatic behavioral or attitudinal responses: (1) awareness of the
influence or the possibility of influence, (2) motivation
to control the influence and response, and (3) the mental capacity to engage in the control process. These
steps, they argue, enable individuals to gain conscious
control over ambiguous influences.
These suggestions imply that if women can be
educated to the view mass medias objectification
of the female body with a more critical, aware eye,
as opposed to simply allowing it to permeate their
leisure and work lives, then the negative effects of
self-objectification could be reduced. We would go
a step further and also suggest that womens more
seemingly innocuous encounters with the mediafor
example, a casual glance at a magazine cover in the
supermarket checkout linemay induce states of selfobjectification even more than the purposeful viewing of such materials, when women are perhaps more
consciously aware of and motivated to defend against
potentially negative influences on their body esteem.
This intriguing possibility will have to be tested by
future researchers.

Conclusions and Future Directions

We cannot disregard men when studying the
negative consequences of sexual objectification.
Research has shown the body sizes of men portrayed
in the media have increased significantly from the
1950s to the 1990s, mostly because of the increase in
muscle mass (Spitzer, Hendersen, & Zivian, 1999).
This, in combination with the recent fixation on
protein powders and muscle enhancers, as well as

25
advertisers rhetoric about Viagra and hair loss remedies, is likely to have negative effects on mens bodily
self-concepts. One consequence has been described
as reverse anorexia, which is an obsession with
gaining muscle mass (Pope, Katz, & Hudson, 1993).
Men may also evaluate themselves from observers
perspectives on dimensions unrelated to appearance,
such as sexual prowess, financial success, or activities
(McKinley, 1998). Future researchers should explore
these ideas and examine the medias depiction of
body ideals that may be potentially harmful for both
men and women. In addition, theoretical work is
needed to distinguish between taking an observers
point-of-view on the physical self, and actually
viewing the physical self as an object. It may be that
the media encourage the former in both men and
women, but the latter only in women.
In our experiment we examined the link between
sexually objectifying words or messages and the onset of self-objectification. Future researchers should
begin to examine possible strategies for prevention
of the negative consequences of self-objectification.
Noll and Fredrickson (1998) have already suggested
diversifying the images of women in the mass media
as one possible solution. This would mean that the
sexually objectified, ultrathin women would be offset
with more realistic images of women. Another possible intervention might be to educate women directly
about self-objectification and strategies to avoid the
experience and consequences of it. These strategies
may include increasing self-awareness and body esteem by becoming aware of the potential dissonance
between the reality of living, breathing womens
bodies and the idealized, computer-enhanced bodies
we encounter in the media. Furthermore, our study
suggests that educational efforts targeted at exposing
print media as a priming mechanism might be very
fruitful. That is, even educated women who are aware
of the unreality of media images and are motivated
to disregard them, may still benefit from knowledge
that their most casual encounters with words alone
may be activating an objectified view of their own
bodies. Media literacy programs may aid in enabling
women to recognize that it is not only images, but
words too, that ought to be read with a critical eye.
In this study, subtle exposure to objectifying
words that may commonly appear in and on magazines every day was sufficient to produce an adverse
effect on the self-attitudes and emotional experiences
of women. It stands to reason, therefore, that a lifetime of exposure to media may produce more severe
consequences, which we have yet to understand

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

26
completely. Further research into the automatic
activating of self-objectification and its negative
consequences may help to enable girls and women
to rise above this pernicious and psychologically
debilitating phenomenon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors extend their heartfelt thanks to Julie
Konik for conducting the manipulation check for this
study. Thanks also to Jamie Goldenberg for comments
on earlier drafts and to Kevin Ford for his advice on
analyses.

REFERENCES
Archer, D., Iritani, B., Kimes, D. D., & Barrios, M. (1983). Faceism:
Five studies of sex differences in facial prominence. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 725735.
Bargh, J. A. (1989). Conditional automaticity: Varieties of automatic influence in social perception and cognition. In J. S.
Uleman & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 351).
New York: Guilford.
Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of
social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 71, 230244.
Bond, M. H., & Tak-Sing, C. (1983). College students spontaneous
self-concept: The effect of culture among respondents in Hong
Kong, Japan, and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 14, 153171.
Bugental, J. F. T., & Zelen, S. L. (1950). Investigations into the
self-concept: The W-A-Y technique. Journal of Personality,
18, 483498.
Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1997). Automatic activation of
impression formation and memorization goals: Nonconscious
goal priming reproduces effects of explicit task instructions.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 464478.
Cousins, S. D. (1989). Culture and self-perception in Japan and the
United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
56, 124131.
Crandall, C. S. (1994). Prejudice against fat people: Ideology and
self-interest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66,
882894.
Darwin, C. (1965). The expression of emotion in man and animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work
published 1872)
Dion, K. L., Dion, K. K., & Keelan, J. P. (1990). Appearance anxiety as a dimension of social-evaluative anxiety: Exploring the
ugly duckling syndrome. Contemporary Social Psychology,
14, 220224.
Fallon, A. E. (1990). Culture in the mirror: Sociocultural determinants of body image. In T. F. Cash & T. Pruzinsky (Eds.), Body
images: Development, deviance, and change (pp. 80109). New
York: Guilford.
Fallon, A. E., & Rozin, P. (1985). Sex differences in perception of
desirable body shape. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94,
102105.
Fredrickson, B. L., Noll, S. M., Roberts, T. A., Quinn, D. M.,
& Twenge, J. M. (1998). That swimsuit becomes you: Sex
differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math

Roberts and Gettman

performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
75, 269284.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T. (1997). Objectification theory:
Toward understanding womens lived experiences and mental
health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173206.
Gapinski, K. D., Brownell, K. D., & LaFrance, M. (2003). Body
objectification and fat talk: Effects on emotion, motivation,
and cognitive performance. Sex Roles, 48, 377388.
Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., McCoy, S. K., Greenberg, J.,
& Solomon, S. (1999). Death, sex, love and neuroticism:
Why is sex such a problem? Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 77, 11731187.
Haidt, J., Rozin, P., McCauley, C. R., & Imada, S. (1997). Body,
psyche, and culture: The relationship between disgust and
morality. Psychology and Developing Societies, 9, 107131.
Hamilton, K., & Waller, G. (1993). Media influences on body
size estimation in anorexia and bulimia. British Journal of
Psychiatry, 162, 837840.
Heiman, J. R., & Verhulst, J. (1982). Gender and sexual functioning. In I. Al-tssa (Ed.), Gender and psychopathology
(pp. 305320). New York: Academic Press.
Jacoby, S. (1988, August 23). Appearance anxiety. New York Times
Magazine, pp. 26, 77.
Kittler, J. E. (2003). Print media exposure as a predictor of
disordered eating: The role of self-objectification, body
shame, and appearance responsibility. Dissertation Abstracts
International, Section B, 64, 967.
Kuhn, M. H., & McPartland, T. S. (1954). An empirical investigation
of self-attitudes. American Sociological Review, 19, 6876.
Lewis, M. (1992). Shame: The exposed self. New York: Free Press.
Malkin, A. R., Wornian, K., & Chrisler, J. C. (1999). Women and
weight: Gendered messages on magazine covers. Sex Roles,
40, 647655.
Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (1970). Human sexual inadequacy.
Boston: Little, Brown.
McKinley, N. M. (1998). Gender differences in undergraduates
body esteem: The mediating effect of objectified body consciousness and actual/ideal weight discrepancy. Sex Roles, 39,
113123.
McKinley, N. M., & Hyde, J. S. (1996). The Objectified Body Consciousness Scale. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 181215.
Miller, W. I. (1997). The anatomy of disgust. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Noll, S. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). A mediational model
linking self-objectification, body shame, and disordered
eating. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22, 623636.
Oliver, M. B., & Hyde, J. S. (1993). Gender differences in sexuality:
A meta-anaylsis. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 2951.
Pope, H. G., Katz, D. L., & Hudson, J. I. (1993). Anorexia nervosa and reverse anorexia among 108 male bodybuilders.
Comprehensive Psychiatry, 34, 406409.
Posovac, H. D., Posovac, S. S., & Posovac, E. J. (1998). Exposure to
media images of female attractiveness and concern with body
weight among young women. Sex Roles, 38, 187201.
Quinn, D. M., & Crocker, J. (1999). When ideology hurts: Effects
of belief in the Protestant ethic and feeling overweight on
the psychological well-being of women. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 77, 402414.
Roberts, T.-A., Goldenberg, J. M., Power, C., & Pyszczynski, T.
(2002). Feminine protection: The effects of menstruation
on attitudes toward women. Psychology of Women Quarterly,
26, 131139.
Rozin, P., & Fallon, A. E. (1987). A perspective on disgust.
Psychological Review, 94, 2341.
Rozin, P., Lowery, L., Imada, S., & Haidt, J. (1999). The CAD triad
hypothesis: A mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community,
autonomy, divinity). Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 76, 574586.

P1: JQX
Sex Roles [sers]

PP1245-sers-488658

June 4, 2004

4:57

Style file version June 3rd, 2002

Mere Exposure
Srull, T. K., & Wyer, R. S. (1979). The role of category accessibility
in the interpretation of information about persons: Some
determinants and implications. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 37, 16601672.
Solely, L. C., & Kurzbard, G. (1986). Sex in advertising: A comparison of 1964 and 1984 magazine advertisements. Journal
of Advertising, 15, 4664.
Sommers-Flanagan, R., Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Davis, B. (1993).
Whats happening on music television? A gender role content
analysis. Sex Roles, 28, 745755.
Spitzer, B. L., Henderson, K. A., & Zivian, M. T. (1999). Gender differences in population versus media body sizes:
A comparison over four decades. Sex Roles, 40, 545
565.
Tangney, J. P. (1993). Shame and guilt. In C. G. Costello
(Ed.), Symptoms of depression (pp. 161180). New York:
Wiley.

27
Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996).
Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256
1269.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002). Obesity still on the rise. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/
dnpa/press/archive/obesity 10 2002.htm
Vaughan, K. K., & Fouts, G. T. (2003). Changes in magazine and
television exposure and eating disorder symptomatology. Sex
Roles, 49, 313320.
Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control.
Psychological Review, 101, 3452.
Winkler, M. G., & Cole, L. B. (1994). The good body. New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press.
Wright, J. C., & Huston, A. C. (1983). A matter of form: Potentials
of television for young viewers. American Psychologist, 38,
835843.