Body Image 10 (2013) 509–514

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Body Image
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bodyimage

The impact of thin idealized media images on body satisfaction: Does

body appreciation protect women from negative effects?
Emma Halliwell ∗
Centre for Appearance Research, Department of Psychology, University of the West of England, Frenchay, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 9QY, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This article examines whether positive body image can protect women from negative media exposure
Received 13 December 2012 effects. University women (N = 112) were randomly allocated to view advertisements featuring ultra-thin
Received in revised form 16 July 2013 models or control images. Women who reported high levels of body appreciation did not report negative
Accepted 17 July 2013
media exposure effects. Furthermore, the protective role of body appreciation was also evident among
women known to be vulnerable to media exposure. Women high on thin-ideal internalization and low
Keywords:
on body appreciation reported appearance-discrepancies that were more salient and larger when they
Positive body image
viewed models compared to the control group. However, women high on thin-ideal internalization and
Body appreciation
Media
also high on body appreciation rated appearance-discrepancies as less important and no difference in
Body dissatisfaction size than the control group. The results support the notion that positive body image protects women
Women from negative environmental appearance messages and suggests that promoting positive body image
Experimental may be an effective intervention strategy.
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
Recently, body image researchers have paid increasing atten-
tion to the experience of positive body image. This attention has
been prompted by a desire to expand our understanding of body
image beyond the prevention of distress and to foster the promo-
tion of body appreciation (Tylka, 2011). As a consequence, there
has been a flurry of research activity around positive body image.
Positive body image is conceptualized as an overarching way of
experiencing the body that encompasses love and respect (Wood-
Barcalow, Tylka & Augustus-Horvath, 2010), and this construct
has been operationalized in research as body appreciation (Avalos,
Tylka, & Wood-Barcalow, 2005).
The Body Appreciation Scale (Avalos et al., 2005) taps into four
essential qualities of positive body image: holding positive eval-
uations of the body, body acceptance, respecting and attending
to bodily needs, and protecting the body by rejecting unrealistic
appearance ideals. Body appreciation is not simply the experience
of body satisfaction, rather it is a way of valuing one’s body and
orientating cognitive processing to protect and promote a positive
view of the body. The conceptual distinction between body appre-
ciation and body dissatisfaction has been supported empirically
(Avalos et al., 2005). Positive body image incorporates a protec-
tive processing style; therefore, it is expected that women with
∗ Tel.: +44 (0)117 3282154.
E-mail address: emma.halliwell@uwe.ac.uk
positive body image avoid influences that have a potentially detri-
mental impact. Consistent with this assertion, there is correlational
evidence that body appreciation is associated with low levels of
consumption of appearance focused media (Swami, Hadji-Michael,
& Furnham, 2008) and is negatively correlated with internalization
of sociocultural ideals (Tylka & Kroon Van Diest, 2013). Moreover,
qualitative evidence suggests that adolescent girls with positive
body image are highly critical of unrealistic appearance ideals in
the media (Holmqvist & Frisén, 2012). However, to date, no experi-
mental research has examined the claim that women with positive
body image are protected from negative environmental messages
around appearance.
One of the most potent sources of sociocultural messages about
appearance is the media. Meta-analyses confirm that exposure to
thin bodies idealized in the media has a small to moderate neg-
ative effect on body- and weight-dissatisfaction, negative affect,
internalization of the thin-ideal, and eating behavior among ado-
lescent girls and young adult women (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008;
Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Want, 2009). In addition, indi-
vidual studies suggest that this negative exposure effect is also
experienced by women in later adulthood, and by girls as young
as five (Dittmar, Halliwell, & Ive, 2006; Dittmar & Howard, 2004;
Halliwell & Dittmar, 2004). A number of individual difference fac-
tors have been shown to moderate these media exposure effects.
Two meta-analyses have found that women who report body sat-
isfaction and who have not internalized the thin beauty ideal are
protected from media exposure effects (Groesz et al., 2002; Want,
2009). Although body appreciation is related to body satisfaction

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.07.004
510 E. Halliwell / Body Image 10 (2013) 509–514
and thin-ideal internalization, it is a conceptually and empirically
distinct construct (Tylka, 2011). Therefore, it represents an addi-
tional potential protective factor against negative media exposure
effects.
As well as moderating media exposure effects, thin-ideal inter-
nalization is a key risk factor for the development of negative body
image and disordered eating (Stice, Ng, & Shaw 2010; Thompson &
Stice, 2001). Although all women will be aware that cultural ideals
of attractiveness value thinness for women, not all women buy into
this dominant ideal. Thin-ideal internalization refers to the extent
that someone incorporates sociocultural ideals for women’s beauty
into their own personal ideals and values (Thompson, Heinberg,
Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). In prospective studies, thin-ideal
internalization predicts negative body image and disordered eat-
ing, yet not all women who internalize the thin-ideal develop eating
disorders (Stice et al., 2010). Women who buy into sociocultural
ideals of attractiveness but who also accept their bodies despite
not matching this ideal and view their bodies with respect and
love maybe less likely to experience the negative consequences of
thin-ideal internalization. Research has not yet examined the inter-
action between body appreciation and known risk factors for body
dissatisfaction and eating disorders.
The current study examines whether body appreciation protects
women from negative media exposure effects. In addition, it exa-
mines the interaction between positive body image and thin-ideal
internalization. Women who are high on thin-ideal internalization
are known to be vulnerable to negative exposure effects. One key
feature of body appreciation is processing sociocultural messages
about appearance in a self-protective way. Therefore, high levels of
body appreciation may change the way women process images of
idealized female models and may protect women who internalize
the thin-ideal from experiencing negative effects of viewing media
images.
Consistent with previous research findings, it is hypothesized
that thin-ideal internalization will increase women’s vulnerability
to media exposure. Specifically, women who are high on thin-ideal
internalization will report more negative state body image after
viewing models than control images. For women low on thin-ideal
internalization, there will be no difference between conditions on
outcome variables.
It is hypothesized that body appreciation will protect women
from media exposure effects. For women with high levels of body
appreciation, there will be no difference in measures of state body
image after viewing images of idealized models or control images.
In contrast, women low on body appreciation will report more
negative state body image after viewing model images than after
control images.
Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the protective nature of
body appreciation will also be evident among women who inter-
nalize the thin-ideal. For women high on thin-ideal internalization
and also high on body appreciation, there will be no difference
between state body image after viewing models or control images.
Yet, women high on thin-ideal internalization but low on body
appreciation will report more negative state body image after view-
ing models than control images.
Method
Participants
Female psychology students (N = 130) enrolled in a large uni-
versity in the United Kingdom were recruited to take part in a
study on “Attitudes to Advertising” in return for course credits.
Complete data were obtained for 112 women; 49 women in the
control condition and 63 in the model condition. The majority of
participants (87%) were White, their mean age was 20.04 years
(SD = 2.61, range = 18–39), and their mean BMI was 22.33 (SD = 2.99,
range = 14.90–34.80).
Advertising Images
There were five print advertisements in each condition. The
adverts in the model condition were selected from popular
women’s magazines and showed full body shots of thin mod-
els advertising perfume, clothes, and a soft drink. In the control
condition, product-only advertisements for makeup, perfume, and
handbags were selected from popular women’s magazines.
Measures
Positive body image. The Body Appreciation Scale (Avalos
et al., 2005) was used to assess positive body image. Participants
responded to 13 items on a 5-point scale ranging from never (1) to
always (5). The scale has a unidimensional structure and demon-
strated evidence of reliability (internal consistency and 3-week
test–retest) and construct validity for women (Avalos et al., 2005).
Cronbach’s alpha for the current sample was .92.
Thin-ideal internalization. The internalization subscale of
the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire
(SATAQ-3: Thompson, van den Berg, Roehrig, Guarda, & Heinberg,
2004) was administered. Respondents indicated their agreement
with nine statements on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from
definitely disagree (1) to definitely agree (5). Construct validity and
internal consistency reliability of this measure have been demon-
strated for women (Thompson et al., 2004). Cronbach’s alpha for
the current sample was .90.
State body image. State body image was measured unobtru-
sively through ratings of appearance self-discrepancies. The state
version of the Self-Discrepancy Index (state-SDI; Dittmar, Beattie,
& Friese, 1996; Halliwell & Dittmar, 2006) was used. The measure
asks participants to complete five sentences of the format, “I. . ..
but I would like. . .,” describing aspects of themselves that they
would ideally like to change right now. They then rate each self-
discrepancy statement in terms of magnitude, ranging from a little
different (1) to extremely different (6) and salience, ranging from a
little important (1) to extremely important (6).
Self-discrepancies are then coded into a category of interest (e.g.,
appearance-related self-discrepancies). The extent and salience of
self-discrepancies were measured separately because they can be
independent of each other. For instance, there may be a large
discrepancy between a person wanting to be “thin” rather than
“overweight”, but it may not be important to them. Therefore, for
each appearance-discrepancy two scores were calculated. The size
of the state appearance-discrepancies is calculated from the sum of
all the size ratings assigned to discrepancies coded as appearance-
related. The salience of appearance-discrepancies is the sum of the
importance rating assigned to discrepancies coded as appearance-
related. The measure is additive because respondents had the
opportunity to write about anything concerning themselves, list-
ing more appearance-related aspects is an indication of larger and
more salient discrepancies. The possible range of both the size and
salience rating are 0–30. Zero means the person did not list any self-
discrepancies relating to appearance. Thirty means that all five of
their listed self-discrepancies were related to appearance and had
magnitude or importance ratings of 6.
The self-statements were coded as appearance-related discrep-
ancies if they explicitly referred to appearance (e.g., my weight, my
boobs), as opposed to other aspects of the self (e.g., my finances,
 E. Halliwell / Body Image 10 (2013) 509–514
Table 1
Pre-exposure BMI, age, thin-ideal internalization, and body appreciation by condition.
Measure Model, M (SD)
BMI 22.03 (2.92)
Age 19.94 (1.62)
Thin-ideal internalization 3.36 (0.73)
Body appreciation 3.17 (0.67)
Note: N = 112; n model condition = 63, n control condition = 49.
my love life). Two coders independently coded the data, and there
was 100% agreement between the coders.
The SDI has good convergent validity with other measures of
women’s and men’s body image and criterion-related validity with
eating behaviors (Halliwell & Dittmar, 2006). The state-SDI is also
appropriate for assessing media exposure effects among under-
graduate women and men (e.g., Dittmar & Halliwell, 2007; Dittmar,
Halliwell, & Stirling, 2009).
Advertising evaluation. To support the cover story, women
were asked to rate their impression of the advert, their impression
of the brand, and how much they liked the advert.
Procedure
The study was approved by the University’s Ethics Committee. It
was advertised as a study investigating women’s attitudes towards
advertising and personality factors influencing adverting effective-
ness. On agreeing to take part, women were randomly allocated to
a condition via a computer generated randomization table. Partic-
ipants were then sent a link to an online questionnaire in which
they were asked to complete at their convenience. They were told
that personality, mood, and thoughts about oneself influence pre-
ferences for advertising and that the online questionnaire included
questions relating to these factors. They completed measures of
body appreciation and thin-ideal internalization as well as filler
items about personality and consumer attitudes to disguise the
true focus of the study. Women also reported their age, height,
weight and ethnicity. One week later participants attended a lab
session. Initially, 65 women were randomly assigned to each condi-
tion. However, 18 of these women did not attend the experimental
session due to illness, transport problems, and an unplanned uni-
versity closure which reduced the sample size to 112. Women were
tested individually. They rated the advertisements at their own
pace and then completed the appearance-discrepancy measure. At
the end of the experiment, women were asked to state the pur-
pose of the study in their own words in order to check that they
had believed the cover story. All of the women were naïve to the
actual aims of the research. The participants were thanked and,
when data collection was complete, they were emailed a written
debrief describing the true aims of the study. They were also given
the opportunity to retract their data from the study. None of the
participants asked for their responses to be removed.
A post-test only design was chosen to avoid setting up demand
characteristics. Some researchers have successfully used Visual
Analogue Scales (VAS) in pre- and post-test designs (e.g., Birkeland
et al., 2005), and VAS scales are well suited to repeated measure-
ment designs. However, when using more detailed measures of
body image, repeated measurement is likely to make the aims of
the study apparent e.g., participants may be able to remember, and
reproduce, their pre-test responses or shape their answers accord-
ing to what they think the experimenter wants to find (Thompson,
2004). Thus, when participants suspect the true purpose of media
exposure studies, the identification of adverse effects is more likely
(Mills, Polivy, Herman, & Tiggemann, 2002). Mills et al. (2002) sug-
gested that, ideally, body image measures should be presented as
511
Control, M (SD) t-value df p-value
22.40 (3.48) 0.60 107 .55
20.18 (3.46) 0.78 106 .44
3.13 (0.72) −1.76 113 .08
3.24 (0.70) 0.64 106 .64
part of a separate study to eliminate demand characteristics. How-
ever, the naivety check in the present research confirmed that the
use of an unobtrusive measure of appearance concerns combined
with the post-only design did not set up demand characteristics.
Results
t-tests, reported in Table 1, revealed that there was no significant
difference in BMI, age, thin-ideal internalization, or body apprecia-
tion between women assigned to each condition, assuring that the
randomization was effective in creating equal groups. Body appre-
ciation and thin-ideal internalization were moderately correlated,
r = −.36, p < .001, supporting the notion that they are independent
factors. High and low groups on thin-ideal internalization and body
appreciation were created using a median split on each variable,
the median for thin-ideal internalization was 3.5 and the median
for body appreciation was 3.27.
Appearance-discrepancy Size
A 2 (condition) × 2 (level of thin-ideal internalization) × 2 (level
of body appreciation) ANOVA was used to examine whether
thin-ideal internalization and body appreciation, independently
or in combination, moderated the impact of media exposure on
appearance-discrepancy size. There was no statistically significant
main effect of media exposure on appearance-discrepancy size,
F(1, 104) = 0.98, partial 2 = .01, p = .33. Surprisingly, neither level
of thin-ideal internalization, F(1, 104) = 0.81, partial 2 = .01, p = .37,
nor level of body appreciation, F(1, 104) = 1.43, partial 2 = .01,
p = .23, had a significant main effect on appearance-discrepancy
size.
Consistent with previous research, there was a significant
interaction between exposure and thin-ideal internalization, F(1,
104) = 3.93, partial 2 = .04, p = .05. Among women low on thin-
ideal internalization, there was no significant difference in the
size of appearance-discrepancies reported in the control condition
(M = 5.97, SD = 4.30) and the model condition (M = 5.48, SD = 3.82),
F(1, 52) = .49, partial 2 = .01, p = .49, d = 0.12. However, women
high on thin-ideal internalization reported larger appearance-
discrepancies if they had viewed models (M = 8.06, SD = 4.42)
compared to those who had viewed control images (M = 5.50,
SD = 3.33), F(1, 52) = 4.40, partial 2 = .08, p = .04, d = −0.65.
Body appreciation did not moderate the effect of media expo-
sure, as there was no significant interaction between media
exposure and level of body appreciation, F(1, 104) = 1.37, partial
2 = .01, p = .24. The interaction effect between thin-ideal inter-
nalization and body appreciation approached significance, F(1,
104) = 3.72, partial 2 = .04, p = .06. Central to the current research
question, the 3-way interaction between condition, level of thin-
ideal internalization and level of body appreciation was significant,
F(1, 104) = 11.66, partial 2 = .10, p = .001. This finding suggests that
the moderating role of body appreciation on media exposure differs
for women depending on their level of thin-ideal internalization.
To interrogate the 3-way interaction, analysis was run
separately for women according to their level of thin-ideal inter-
nalization. The means and SDs for appearance-discrepancy size are
512 E. Halliwell / Body Image 10 (2013) 509–514

Table 2 12
Mean appearance-discrepancy size and salience scores in each condition by level of
thin-ideal internalization and level of body appreciation.
10
Model, M (SD) Control, M (SD)

Appearance-discrepancy size 8
High TII
High BA 6.29 (3.79) 7.50 (3.34) 6 Low body appreciaon
Low BA 9.18 (4.51) 3.50 (1.84)
High body appreciaon
Low TII
High BA 5.24 (4.12) 4.29 (3.47) 4
Low BA 5.90 (3.41) 8.33 (4.35)
Appearance-discrepancy salience 2
High TII
High BA 6.29 (3.14) 9.10 (3.18)
0
Low BA 10.05 (4.78) 4.20 (1.87)
Low TII Model Control
High BA 4.65 (4.05) 4.88 (4.33)
Low BA 6.60 (4.43) 7.08 (4.03) Fig. 2. Appearance-discrepancy salience scores for women high in thin-ideal inter-
nalization by condition and level of body appreciation.
Note: TII, thin-ideal internalization; BA, body appreciation.

reported in Table 2. In the low thin-ideal internalization group,
there was no interaction between media exposure and level of
body appreciation, F(1, 52) = 2.53, partial 2 = .05, p = .12. In the
high thin-ideal internalization group, the interaction between
media exposure and level of body appreciation was significant,
F(1, 52) = 10.47, partial 2 = .17, p = .01. This interaction is displayed
in Fig. 1. Women who were high on thin-ideal internalization
and low on body appreciation who viewed models reported
larger appearance-discrepancies compared to women who viewed
control images, F(1, 22) = 14.55, p = .001, partial 2 = .33, d = 1.65.
However, there was no significant media exposure effect among
women high on thin-ideal internalization and high on body appre-
ciation, F(1, 22) = 0.66, p = .42, partial 2 = .03, d = −0.34.
In sum, these findings indicate that the size of appearance-
discrepancies was only impacted by media exposure for some
women. Specifically, the size of appearance-discrepancies was not
impacted by media exposure for women who are low on thin-ideal
internalization or for women who are high on thin-ideal internal-
ization but are also high on body appreciation. However, viewing
models was associated with larger appearance-discrepancies when
women were high on thin-ideal internalization but low on body
appreciation.
Appearance-discrepancy Salience
The same analysis was run on appearance-discrepancy salience.
Again, there was no statistically significant main effect of media
exposure on appearance-discrepancy salience, F(1, 104) = 0.55,
partial 2 = .01, p = .46. There was a main effect of thin-ideal
12
10
8
6 Low body appreciaon
High body appreciaon
4
2
0
Model Control
Fig. 1. Appearance-discrepancy size scores for women high in thin-ideal internal-
ization by condition and level of body appreciation.
internalization, F(1, 104) = 4.21, partial 2 = .04, p = .04, but there
was no main effect of body appreciation, F(1, 104) = 0.93, partial
2 = .01, p = .34. In this case, there was no significant interaction
between exposure and thin-ideal internalization, F(1, 104) = 1.44,
partial 2 = .01, p = .23. Instead, there was a significant interac-
tion between media exposure and level of body appreciation,
F(1, 104) = 7.23, partial 2 = .07, p = .01. For women high on
body appreciation, there was no significant difference in the
salience of appearance-discrepancies reported by women who
had viewed models (M = 5.39, SD = 3.70) and women who had
viewed control images (M = 6.44, SD = 4.40), F(1, 56) = 0.99, par-
tial 2 = .02, p = .32, d = 0.26. In contrast, women who were low
on body appreciation and viewed models reported more salient
appearance-discrepancies (M = 8.97, SD = 4.88) than women low on
body appreciation who viewed control images (M = 5.77, SD = 3.49),
F(1, 52) = 6.98, partial 2 = .12, p = .01, d = −0.75.
The interaction effect between level of thin-ideal internalization
and level of body appreciation was not significant, F(1, 104) = 2.86,
partial 2 = .03, p = .09. Similar to the findings with appearance-
discrepancy size, the 3-way interaction between condition, level
of thin-ideal internalization, and level of body appreciation was
significant, F(1, 104) = 8.11, partial 2 = .07, p = .001.
Analysis was run separately for women according to their level
of thin-ideal internalization. The means and SDs for appearance-
discrepancy salience are reported in Table 2. The interaction
between media exposure and level of body appreciation was not
significant among women low on thin-ideal internalization, F(1,
52) = 0.01, partial 2 = .00, p = .92. However, the interaction was
significant among women high on thin-ideal internalization, F(1,
52) = 16.85, partial 2 = .25, p = .001. This interaction is shown in
Fig. 2. Women high on thin-ideal internalization but low on body
appreciation reported more salient appearance-discrepancies in
the model condition than in the control condition, F(1, 30) = 13.80,
partial 2 = .32, p = .001, d = 1.61. Interestingly, women high on thin-
ideal internalization and also high on body appreciation reported
less salient appearance-discrepancies when they viewed models
than when they viewed control images, F(1, 22) = 4.63, partial
2 = .17, p = .04, d = −0.89.
These findings indicate that viewing media models, compared
to control images, did not significantly impact on the salience of
appearance-discrepancies among women low on thin-ideal inter-
nalization. The combination of high thin-ideal internalization and
low body appreciation was associated with negative media expo-
sure effects because viewing models was associated with more
salient appearance-discrepancies than viewing control images. In
contrast, when high thin-ideal internalization was coupled with
high body appreciation viewing models was associated with less
 E. Halliwell / Body Image 10 (2013) 509–514
salient appearance-discrepancies compared to viewing control
images.
Discussion
This study provides preliminary evidence to suggest that
body appreciation protects women from negative media exposure
effects. Moreover, this protection is evident among women who
internalize the thin-ideal and are known to be vulnerable to body
image disturbance.
The findings replicate previous research demonstrating that
women who strongly internalize the thin-ideal report larger
appearance-discrepancies after viewing thin models than control
images. Interestingly, exposure to media models did not impact the
salience of appearance-discrepancies among this group of women.
This suggests that women who internalize the thin-ideal feel more
dissatisfied with their appearance after viewing models, but that
they do not place increased importance on this appearance dissat-
isfaction.
The findings relating to the moderating role of body apprecia-
tion are novel and incremental to the body image literature. For
women low on body appreciation, viewing models, compared to
viewing control images, did not impact on the size of appearance-
discrepancies but it did make appearance-discrepancies more
salient. Interestingly, body appreciation also moderated the effects
of media exposure among thin-ideal internalizing women. Pre-
vious research has demonstrated, and this study confirms, that
women who internalize the thin-ideal are vulnerable to negative
exposure effects. When women were high on thin-ideal internaliza-
tion and low on body appreciation, viewing models was associated
with larger and more salient appearance-discrepancies compared
to the control group. However, when women high on thin-ideal
internalization were also high on body appreciation, the negative
exposure effects on appearance-discrepancy size disappeared and
on appearance-discrepancy salience were reversed. This group of
women reported less salient appearance-discrepancies after view-
ing models compared to the control group. This suggests that
women who buy into the thin-ideal but who also appreciate their
bodies downplay the importance of appearance-discrepancies after
viewing images of media models.
The inclusion of measures assessing both the size and the
salience of appearance dissatisfaction has proved useful in this
research. Findings relating to the extent of appearance dissatis-
faction, as assessed through the size of appearance-discrepancies,
replicate findings of previous research on media exposure. The
moderating impact of internalization was only seen on this mea-
sure of state body image. In contrast, body appreciation moderated
the impact of media exposure on the importance women place on
appearance-discrepancies. The results suggest that when women
low on body appreciation view ultra-thin models they place greater
importance on their appearance dissatisfaction. The role of body
appreciation is particularly interesting when it is considered in
combination with thin-ideal internalization, and it is striking that
even when women buy into dominant appearance ideals, body
appreciation seems to protect them from exposure to these ideals.
The findings are consistent with the conceptualization of posi-
tive body image (i.e., body appreciation) as guiding self-protective
cognitive processing of media images to minimize the impact of
environmental messages about appearance. Indeed, women who
internalize the thin-ideal but who also appreciate their bodies place
less importance on appearance-discrepancies after viewing models
than control images. This may provide insight into one of the pro-
tective psychological mechanisms used by women with positive
body image. When confronted with idealized and artificial media
images of female beauty, women with positive body image may
513
actively downplay the importance of appearance relative to func-
tional aspects of their bodies or other aspects of their self-identity.
It would be informative for future research to examine salience rat-
ing for other self-domains. In addition, the lack of exposure effects
on appearance-discrepancy size for women high in both thin-ideal
internalization and body appreciation suggests that these women
are avoiding, or undoing, evaluative appearance comparisons with
media models. It would also be informative to develop methods to
directly assess women’s processing of ultra-thin media images.
Limitations
The sample size of the current study was relatively small and
consisted of mainly White, young, undergraduate women. Clearly,
these results also need replication with a larger more diverse sam-
ple. In the current study, different products were used in the control
condition and the model condition. Only women in the control con-
dition saw advertisements for make-up and a handbag and only
women in the model condition viewed advertisements for clothes
and a soft drink. It is possible that the products may have had an
impact on self-discrepancies. This is less concerning because pre-
vious research has demonstrated that while women’s body image
is strongly affected by the presence of models in advertising, it
is not affected by viewing appearance-related products compared
to household-related products (Birkeland et al., 2005). However,
future research should match the products shown in each condi-
tion.
Implications for Clinical Practice
Research has established a number of individual differences
variables that make women vulnerable to negative societal mes-
sages around appearance. The current findings add support to
the theory that positive body image protects women from exter-
nal appearance pressures. There is evidence that media literacy
interventions that give women and girls information about the
artificial nature of media images can prevent negative media expo-
sure effects (Halliwell, Easun, & Harcourt, 2011; Posavac, Posavac, &
Weigel, 2001; Yamamiya, Cash, Melnyk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005).
The results of this study suggest that promoting body acceptance,
a central aspect of body appreciation, should also protect women
from negative societal messages about appearance.
In support of this assertion, body acceptance activities have
been identified as an effective component of interventions for body
dissatisfaction and disordered eating (Stice, Shaw, & Marti, 2007).
Furthermore, a body image intervention incorporating body accep-
tance has been shown to increase girls’ resilience to thin-idealized
media (Halliwell & Diedrichs, 2013). To date, body image inter-
ventions have been designed to target negative body image, and
their effectiveness is measured through their impact on nega-
tive body image. However, it may be that existing programs are
also promoting positive body image and that this is strengthen-
ing their impact. It would be useful to include measures of body
appreciation in intervention evaluations to assess this question. In
addition, the growing evidence that positive body image is central
to psychological health suggests that interventions should specif-
ically target body appreciation. Therapeutic techniques such as
mindfulness that focus on self-acceptance and promoting psycho-
logical well-being more broadly have been tailored to promote
body appreciation (Stewart, 2004). Mindfulness interventions have
not yet been evaluated in relation to positive body image. There
is emerging evidence that mindfulness can reduce negative body
image and problematic eating behaviors (e.g., Alberts, Thewissen,
& Raes, 2012). Future research should address whether mindful-
ness techniques present a useful addition to existing body image
interventions.
514 E. Halliwell / Body Image 10 (2013) 509–514
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