2023-04-21-未知机构-有她_你的理想_-消极的社会比较和健康行为_-There_She_Is_Your_Ideal-_Negative_Social_Comparisons_and_Health_Behaviors_65页_1mb

"THERE SHE IS, YOUR IDEAL" NEGATIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS AND HEALTH BEHAVIORS – Summary

1. Research Question
The study investigates how negative social comparisons (specifically, beauty ideals promoted in media like beauty pageants) influence health behaviors, with a focus on weight-related outcomes.

2. Methodology

• Natural Experiment: Exploits variation in Miss America and Miss USA pageant winners (3725–51 contestants across 50+ states).
• Data Sources:
  • Media Exposure: Newspaper coverage, Google Trends data (2004–2010) for pageant searches.
  • Health Behaviors:
    • BRFSS/YRBS: Weight-loss intentions, self-reported body image, exercise, and dieting behaviors.
    • Natality Data: Gestational weight gain in pregnant women.
• Identification Strategy: Uses the exogenous variation from pageant wins to isolate the effect of media-driven social comparisons on health outcomes.

3. Key Findings

• Media Exposure: Home-state pageant wins increased local newspaper coverage and online searches related to the pageants by 27–37 percentage points for newspapers and 23–24 percent increase in search volume.
• Health Behaviors:
  • Teen Girls/Women (18–28): More likely to report weight loss intentions (4.9%) and harsher body image (10–11%) including misclassifying normal weight as overweight.
  • Pregnant Women: Reduced gestational weight gain by 1 percentage point (suggesting earlier in-pregnancy weight control influenced by beauty norms).
  • Teen Boys, Older Women: No significant effects, supporting the idea that the effects are salient to those directly exposed or influenced.

4. Heterogeneity

• The effects are statistically robust for young women and disappear over time.
• No significant changes in BMI, but behavioral changes like dieting and exercise are reported.
• Regional and race-specific variations observed (e.g., stronger effects in Southern/Midwestern U.S. states and for non-white women).

5. Discussion

• The study provides quasi-experimental evidence linking media exposure to negative health behaviors, particularly weight control in females.
• Effects are temporary, fading within months, implying policy implications for regulating media influence.
• Limitations include data constraints (e.g., no clinical measures of eating disorders and limited coverage of certain age groups).

In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that media-driven social comparisons from beauty pageants significantly impact the weight-related behaviors and body image preferences of young women and pregnant women in their home states.