The Influence Of Advertising Media On Female College Students' Self-objectification

In recent years, self-objecification of women has been a hot topic in the study of mental health in western countries. Self-objectification is the act of viewing the self, particularly the body, from a third-person perspective. Many studies showed that numerous negative consequences for those women who self-objectify, including body shame, anxiety, depression and eating disorders. The mass media is one of the most important factor of the self-objectification as the most powerful means to instill cultural value. In the current study, we examined the effect that the mass media has on self-objectification and the disruptive effect of self-objectification on performance.The first experiment examined whether the sexual objecification in the mass media has a negative effect on self-objectification of women. The result shows that the subjects received the sexual objectification information have higher scores in the scale (F=9.39 p<0.01). The second experiment examined whether women in a state of self-objectification were slower to respond to a basic Stroop color-choice task. The result shows that the subjects in a state of self-objectification need more time to finish the Stroop color-choice task. The subjects in a state of self-objectification need more time to finish the color-choice task on the body words. The subjects in no state of self-objectification need the same time as on the body words as on the neutral words.The conclusions of the study are as follows:(1)The sexual objectification in the mass media led to self-objectification of women increased.(2)Women in a state of self-objectification exhibited decreased performance in the color-choice task.(3)Women in a state of self-objectification distributed the attention to the body surveillance.