Author: Veronika Kashkan

2.  Body objectification and “Fat-talk”. Effects on
emotion, motivation, and cognitive
performance
 Ethnicity, gender, and vulnerability to self-
objectification
 Women who objectify women: The vicious circle
of objectification?
 Conclusions

3.  Westernized societies sexually
objectify the female body
(especially during their years of
reproductive potential)
 Women tend to be judged
on the basis of how they look like;
 The more positive the
evaluation, the more likely a
woman is to be valued by others;

4.  Other people's evaluations can determine
how girls and women are treated in day-to-
day interactions, which can shape their
social and economic life outcomes;
 Many women internalize the prevailing
sociocultural attitudes (they self-objectify);
 Self-objectification can be triggered and
enlarged by certain situations (state SO);

5.  Trying on swimwear produced state self-
objectification in women and men alike;
 But only for women did state self-
objectification produce body shame;
 For men, trying on the swimsuit produced
a more lighthearted self-conscious state
(feeling shy and silly).

6. Increased body shame
and anxiety 
 Lower self-esteem 
 Other mental health risks, such as disordered
eating, sexual dysfunction and depression.
 Disruption of cognitive functions by reducing
the mental resources.

8. Ha-ha! You are
crazy!
I also want to be
beautiful..

9.  Self-objectification - a
view of oneself as an
object that is valued for
use by others.
 State self-objectification
- self-objectification that
is situationally prompted.
 “Fat talk” - a self-
disparaging body talk
that occurs in peer
groups and appears to
contain an element of
social influence.

10.  Hypothesis 1: Trait and state self-objectification
will be associated with an increase in anxiety
and other negative emotions.
 Hypothesis 2: Trait and state self-objectification
will be associated with reduced intrinsic
motivation, self-efficacy, and cognitive
performance in several domains.
 Hypothesis 3: Exposure to body-disparaging
“fat talk” will be associated with a greater
degree of the above deficits than will exposure
to more neutral “control talk.”

11.  80 undergraduate women at Yale
University
 Age: 17 - 21 years old.
 Nationality: 61% European American, 14%
Asian, 10% African American, 6%
Hispanic, and 9% “other.”
 Mean height: 64.36 in. = 163.5 cm.
 Mean weight: 137.19 lbs (pounds) = 62.2 kg.
 Body Mass Index (BMI): 23.21.
 18 participants were underweight, 51 as
average weight, and 11 as overweight.

12.  Pretesting: gathering trait self-objectification
scores before the test.
The Self-Objectification Questionnaire shows
how individuals rank the importance of five
appearance-based items relative to the
importance of five competence-based.
Range of scores −25 to +25;
Higher scores greater emphasis on
appearance (Trait Self-Objectification , TSO)

13.  participants thought it was a
study of consumer behavior and
emotion;
 they were asked to try on and
evaluate a swimsuit or a sweater
(the experimental manipulation);
 in the “dressing room,”
participants overheard a peer
make body-disparaging
comments (fat talk condition) or
disparaging comments about
computers (control condition).

14.  Division of participants
 Assignment of experimental conditions
(swimsuit/sweater, fat talk/control talk)
 Instructions
 Confederate’s talk
 Fulfillment of the task

15.  As predicted, women in swimsuits wrote
significantly more “body shape and size”
statements than did women in sweaters.
 They were significantly more likely to include
“body shape and size” statements among
their first three responses.
↓
Objectification leads women to define their sense
of self with their bodies, and wearing a swimsuit
appeared to elicit state self-objectification.

16. Hypothesis 1: Trait and state self-objectification will be
associated with an increase in anxiety and other
negative emotions.
Findings:
 Women in swimsuits (objectified women) reported
feeling more surprised, revolted, shy, self-
conscious, humiliated, marginally more anxious and
were less attentive than women in sweaters.
↓
Being in a swimsuit (objectified) is associated with more
unpleasant emotional states than is being more
fully clothed (less objectified).
Hypothesis 1 was confirmed!

17. Hypothesis 2: Trait and state self-objectification will be
associated with reduced intrinsic motivation, self-
efficacy, and cognitive performance in several domains.
Findings:
 Lower TSO was associated with
higher self-efficacy and
higher intrinsic motivation
↓
Women who generally self-objectify to a greater extent may
at the same time be less likely to experience the feelings of
capability and purposefulness that are characteristics of self-
efficacy and intrinsic motivation.
Hypothesis 2 was confirmed partially.

19.  Hypothesis 3: Exposure to body-disparaging “fat talk” will be
associated with a greater degree of the above deficits than will
exposure to more neutral “control talk.”
Findings:
 for women wearing swimsuits, hearing fat talk was associated with
less negative emotion than hearing control talk. For women in
sweaters, however, the opposite was true.
 for women high in TSO, hearing fat talk was associated with
decreased motivation and performance. For women low in
TSO, hearing fat talk was associated with increased motivation and
performance.
 No other relations were revealed .
↓
Exposure to “fat-talk” itself doesn’t cause any emotional or cognitive
reductions.
Hypothesis 3 was not confirmed

20. Why did participants respond
so differently to fat-talk
condition??
(in interaction between fat-talk
condition and emotions)

22.  Temporary increase in self-confidence via
the process of social comparison;
 Distraction participants’ attention away
from their own exposed bodies via fat talk;
 Excuse to dismiss any bad feelings;
 (Un)conventional situation.

23.  Length that caused exhaustion;
 High number of variables of interest and the
relatively small sample size (N = 80);
 Motivation and performance-based measures
were more trait than state oriented, which could
explain why TSO tended to decrease a relationship
with them, whereas state self-objectification did
not.

24. The potentially dangerous impact of fat
talk should not be underestimated. It
may be particularly damaging to those
who are exposed to eating problems..

28. The Swimsuit Becomes Us All:
Ethnicity, Gender, and
Vulnerability to Self-
Objectification
Michelle R. Hebl, Eden B. King, Jean Lin,

29. Overweighting remains
one of the few stigmas
unaffected by trends toward
“political correctness”.
Overweight individuals
continue to be
discriminated against
in both professional and
interpersonal domains.
The intensity of this negative stigma
seems to differ by gender and ethnicity.

30. Objectification theory:
 Because of societal norms, women can
be characterized by a greater tendency
to objectify themselves.

31.  The stigma of obesity is more negative for women
than for men;
 African American women and men do not stigmatize
obese individuals to the same extent as do
Caucasian people;
 Asian American and Hispanic women are similar to
Caucasian in stigmatizing obese;
 African American women can still be affected by
situations in which the stigmas are activated.

32. Fredrickson et al.’s (1998) research
 men showed no effect of swimsuit or
sweater condition
WHY??
For men, wearing swim trunks is not so very
different from wearing shorts.
Solution?
Try on Speedos!!
BTW, what are Speedos??! 8)

33.  Individuals in the experimental (swimsuit)
condition will have higher levels of state
self-objectification.
 The experience of state self-
objectification will lower self-esteem for
individuals in the swimsuit relative to
individuals in the sweater.

34.  All participants will be negatively affected
by a state of self-objectification regardless
of gender and ethnic background.
 Increased state self-objectification will
cause lower math scores.
 Heightened self-objectification will cause
less food consumption.

35.  400 undergrads from 2 southern
universities;
 56% women, 44%;
 93 African Americans, 130
Caucasians, 88 Hispanics, and 89 Asian
Americans;
 For extra credit or experimental credit

36.  Demographic information (ethnicity,
gender, height, and weight);
 Marketing questionnaire corresponded to
a fragrance, a sweater or swimsuit, and
chocolate;
 Trait Self-Objectification Questionnaire;
 State Self-Objectification Test;
 An indirect measure of body shame;
 State Self-Esteem Scale;
 Math test.

37.  Experimental part (changing clothes)
 Completion of a set of questionnaires
measuring trait self-objectification, body
shame, and attitudes toward obesity.
 Math test
 Another set of questionnaires measuring
body esteem and bogus marketing items

38.  Changing into original clothes
 The third task (tasting the food)
 Complete a set of questionnaires
measuring state self-esteem and
body image identification
 Counting the proportion of
candy consumed
(After participants left).

39. Trait Self-Objectification
 Women tended to have higher levels of trait
self-objectification;
 Hispanics reported the highest levels of trait self-
objectification and African Americans the
lowest;
 Asian American men reported higher levels of
trait self-objectification than Asian American
women

41.  Possibly a novel situation to men was
introduced;
 Looking at math performance as a
dependent variable, the participants’
ability couldn’t be controlled;
 Reliance on undergraduate
participants!!

42. Men and ethnic minorities can
experience equivalent consequences
as Caucasian women when
subjected to a state of self-
objectification

43. -We are beautiful.
-And we are unique.

45. Women Who Objectify Other
Women: The Vicious Circle of
Objectification?
Peter Strelan and Duane
Hargreaves

46. Women, more
than men, express
dissatisfaction
with their bodies

47. Women who placed greater
importance on their own weight and
shape also placed greater
importance on these dimensions
when evaluating other women.

48.  Women self-objectify more and are more
objectified by both genders;
 Men would objectify women more and men
less than women would;
 Positive correlation between women’s and
men’s self-objectification and their
objectification of others;
 Increased self-objectification among women
and men is related to decreased body
satisfaction

49.  132 participants (64 women and 68 men);
 From 17 to 30 years;
 White and middle-class;
 70 - undergraduate psychology students at an
Australian university;
 62 - friends of the students (39 undergrads, 23
employed);

50. Measures
 Self-Objectification (Noll and Fredrickson’s
Questionnaire: appearance-based and
competence-based items);
 Objectification of Others (the importance of the
attributes of others);
 Body Satisfaction (rating attitudes toward body
parts).

51.  Survey completion by students;
 Instructions;
 Students were asked to test one of their
friends (preferably of an opposite sex
between ages of 17-30).

53. Self-Objectification
 Self-objectification was significantly
negatively related to body satisfaction
for women, but not for men.

54.  Women and men who self-objectify were
more likely to objectify others;
 This relationship was much stronger for
women, than for men;
 For women, the objectification of
other women and men was strongly
related, but for men it was unrelated.

55. Women are the main targets of sociocultural
pressure to attain an idealized body, and a
primary source of such perceived pressure is
evaluation by men.

57.  Higher self-objectification is related to lower
body satisfaction among women, but not
among men. Why can it be?
 Contrary to prediction, women did not
objectify other women significantly more than
they objectified men. What can be the
reasons?
 Possibly many of you have experienced
objectification in your life. Can you come up
with any other consequences of
objectification, which were not listed?

58. Reasoning from the original cause of
objectification..
Blame them 

59. The presenter apologizes
for hurting the men’s
feelings..