Positive and Negative Media Image Effects on the Self

We examine several factors that determine whether exposure to thin (or heavy) media images positively or negatively affects consumers' appearance self-esteem. We find that the effects of exposure to models in advertisements depend on two moderating factors: (1) the extremity of the model's thinness or heaviness, and (2) the method by which self-esteem is measured (free responses vs. rating scales). We also establish the underlying role of self-knowledge activation by examining response latencies in a lexical decision task. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..