Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Construal Level Moderates A Local Dominance Effect Of Appearance Comparisons In Undergraduate Women, Kathryn Bruchmann, Maggie L. Osa, Kahana Wong, Lindsay Baerg

Psychology

Body image concerns are pervasive within university environments. In this study, we suggest that high rates of body image concerns among undergraduate women may be due, in part, to a local dominance effect of appearance comparisons. That is, undergraduate women may increasingly make upward social comparisons with a predominantly thin and fit student population, rather than downward or lateral social comparisons with the size-diverse global population. The present research tested for and found evidence of this local dominance effect in Study 1 (N = 50), and tested a construal level manipulation as a moderating factor in Study 2 ( …