DoRacial Minorities Respond in the SameWay to Mainstream Beauty Standards? Social Comparison Processes in Asian, Black, andWhiteWomen

Some members of stigmatized groups, such as Asian women, may be more likely to experience negative self-evaluations after exposure to a mainstream beauty standard than members of other stigmatized groups, such as Black women. In this study, 54 Asian women, 52 Black women, and 64 White women, were exposed to mainstream standards of beauty and compared themselves to these idealized images. It was hypothesized that although Black women would find these comparisons irrelevant, Asian women would see these targets as relevant for their comparisons, reflecting their striving for mainstream beauty standards. The results indicated that Black women did not find mainstream standards as relevant to themselves, and reported positive self-evaluations generally and about their bodies in particular. Asian women, on the other hand, responded differently than Black women and were more likely to endorse mainstream beauty standards in a similar fashion to White women. As predicted, Asian women also experienced greater dissatisfaction with their bodies than did Black women. In American society, many women strive to attain mainstream, Western standards of beauty, which are derived from a predominantly Anglo-Saxon influence. In fact, physical appearance seems to be the most important predictor of overall self-evaluation in female college and high school students (Jackson, Hodge, & Ingram, 1994). Moreover, studies about dating indicate that sometimes the only significant predictor of whether an individual will be initially attracted to a blind date is if the date is physically attractive (Walster, Aronson, Abrahams, & Rottman, 1966). Given that physical appearance is an important aspect of women’s self-concept, that physical attractiveness is meaningful for impressions in general, and that mainstrea