Third-person Perceptions about Idealized Body Image and Weight-loss Behavior

Abstract

This study investigates the third-person effect in relation to body-image factors in Singapore. College women in Singapore reported that thinness ideals, as portrayed in magazine ads, had greater media effects on friends than on themselves. Their perception of media effects on themselves was positively associated with their intention to lose weight. The sum of perceived effects on self and on friends accounted for college women's overall intention to adopt weight-loss behavior, whereas the third-person differential between self and female friends was negatively associated with the subjects' intention to go on a diet.