Abstract
According to social self-preservation theory (SSPT) in situations of social-evaluative threat, we respond psychologically (e.g., shame) and physiologically (e.g., cortisol). Preliminary evidence shows that responses consistent with SSPT are elicited under a social-evaluative body image threat. Ethical issues surrounding measuring responses to actual body image threats have been identified. The current study addressed these challenges by investigating women’s psychological and heart rate responses to an imagined social-evaluative body image threat. Participants (N=97) completed a measure of trait social physique anxiety, and were then randomly assigned to one of two conditions: social-evaluative (modeling swimsuits with friends) or non-social-evaluative (trying on swimsuits alone). Measures of state body shame, state social physique anxiety, and heart rate over 5 minutes were completed prior to and following reading and imagining the scenario. After controlling for trait social physique anxiety, a significant group-by-time interaction was found for state body image measures [F(2, 93)=3.69, p=.03, η2=.07]. Both groups reported higher state body shame and social physique anxiety pre- to post-scenario, with greater increases in state body shame and social physique anxiety in the social-evaluative condition. No between-group differences were found for heart rate. Findings support the applicability of SSPT in a body image context and demonstrate the effectiveness of using imagined scenarios when examining psychological responses to social-evaluative threats. However, they also emphasize the challenges of eliciting changes in physiological outcomes in studies where social-evaluative threats are imagined. There is a need to find actual social-evaluative body image threats that can be tested ethically.Acknowledgments: This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council