Viewing physique slides: Affective responses of women at high and low drive for thinness

The purpose of this study was to examine the affective responses of media exposure for 30 university women who were either high or low on drive for thinness (DT). Participants completed three laboratory visits where they viewed nonphysique-control, self-physique, and model-physique slides. For each visit, the participants completed pre-, immediately post-, and four hourly ecological momentary post-slide viewing assessments of positive and negative affect, and they also indicated their level of pleasure during slide viewing. It was found that the high-DT group, compared to the low-DT group, reported: (a) less pleasure while viewing the self slides, (b) higher negative affect immediately after viewing the self slides, and (c) higher negative affect one and two hours after viewing the model slides. Finally, positive affect, when collapsed across group and condition, was lowest at the one-hour post-assessment. No other differences were significant. The findings that self- and model-slides had negative affective consequences for individuals at risk for eating disorders are discussed with regard to social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954).