Does This Friend Make Me Look Fat? Appearance-Related Comparisons Within Women's Close Friendships

Abstract

The present research investigated the effects of close friends on women's body image and the moderating role of comfort with intimacy. Female participants wrote about a thin or heavy close friend prior to completing implicit (Study 1) and explicit (Study 2) body image measures. Results revealed that participants who avoided intimacy experienced contrast effects, feeling worse about their bodies following exposure to thin friends. However, these effects were attenuated, and sometimes reversed, among participants comfortable with intimacy. Thus, close friends—and the comfort with intimacy within those friendships—have important implications for women's body image.

Notes

¹The same, albeit weaker, pattern of results emerged when the covariates were not included in the analyses. Specifically, the overall Comfort with Closeness × Friend's Body Size interaction became marginal (p = .110). In addition, one of the two reported significant simple effects became marginal (i.e., the effect of comfort with closeness on implicit body image following exposure to a heavy friend; p = .069).

²A highly similar pattern of results emerged when the covariates were not included in the analyses. In fact, the results looked even better without the covariates. For body satisfaction, the overall Comfort with Closeness × Friend's Body Size interaction and all reported significant simple effects remained significant. Notably, for diet and exercise intentions, the overall interaction p-value dropped (p = .055). The one significant simple effect remained significant and one of the two trending simple effects became marginal (i.e., the effect of friend's body size on diet and exercise intentions among avoidants; p = .106).