The Body Weight Contingency of Self-Worth and the Social Monitoring System: Implications for Self-Esteem, Information Processing, and Body Dissatisfaction

The purpose of this research was to investigate female body image disturbance from the sociometer and the contingencies of self-worth perspectives of self-esteem. This study examined whether body weight contingent self-worth moderates the effects of social threat on self-esteem and body weight-related outcomes. It was hypothesized that rejection would result in lower self-esteem and body satisfaction, and greater information processing biases for body weight-related information for women who base their self-worth on body weight, compared to women whose self-worth is less based on weight. Female undergraduates (N = 191) completed a measure of body weight contingent self-worth. Participants were then randomly assigned either an interpersonal rejection condition, or to a neutral control condition. Lastly, participants completed measures of state selfesteem, body dissatisfaction, and measures of cognitive accessibility and attentional bias for body weightrelated information. Results were discussed in terms of their implications for the relational function of body image