The impact of media literacy and self-affirmation interventions on body dissatisfaction in women : an eye tracking study.

Objective : The aim of the research was to investigate the effect of an airbrushing and self-affirmation interventions which were theorised to inhibit social comparison and internalisation processes in order to reduce body dissatisfaction in women. Changes were also anticipated in eye movement data after either intervention when participants viewed normal, underweight and overweight media images. Participants: Fifty-eight women (74.1% white) completed self-report measures of body dissatisfaction, social comparison and internalisation of the thin-ideal at three time points. Design: Participants were randomly assigned to the airbrushing, self-affirmation interventions or control condition. Eye movement data assessed the extent to which participants viewed the media images of normal, underweight and overweight images pre and post-intervention and 4-6 weeks later. Findings: Results indicated that body dissatisfaction and internalisation were significantly reduced as an immediate effect of the airbrushing and self-affirmation intervention however this effect was not maintained at follow-up. Receiving either the airbrushing or self-affirmation intervention had no impact on social comparison scores, and glance duration towards underweight media images compared to the control group. Implications: Together, these findings suggest that the airbrushing and self-affirmation interventions were successful at immediately blocking the effects of the media which provides an evidence base for using a brief intervention to reduce body dissatisfaction in women. However, more exploration needs to be addressed in future research to ascertain how the benefits of utilising eye movement data can be reliably incorporated into a design and how the benefits of these interventions can be maintained beyond follow-up. Keywords: Eye tracking, body dissatisfaction, internalisation, social comparison, airbrushing intervention, self-affirmation interventio