Ideal comparisons: Body ideals harm women’s body image through social comparison

Body dissatisfaction and self-objectification can arise when women view idealized thin bodies, as well as idealized athletic or curvy bodies. State-level social comparisons have been shown to mediate such effects, with mixed evidence for the moderating role of trait-level social comparison. An experiment tested the hypotheses that viewing messages idealizing thin, athletic, and curvy bodies would be associated with greater state social...