Effects of Media Images on Attitudes Toward Tanning

Abstract

Two experiments evaluated the effects of exposure to pictures of suntanned and untanned fashion models on attitudes regarding the importance of having a tan. In Experiment 1, 128 women were randomly assigned to view images of photographer's models that had been digitally altered to make it appear that the model either did or did not have a tan. Participants who viewed images of the models without a tan expressed significantly less positive attitudes toward tanning than did those who viewed the same models with a tan. In Experiment 2, 169 women were randomly assigned to view advertisements taken from fashion and beauty magazines that contained models who appeared to have suntanned skin, models who appeared not to have a tan, or no models at all. The results demonstrated that participants who viewed ads depicting models with untanned skin expressed less favorable attitudes toward tanning than did those who viewed control ads or those who viewed tan models. Given escalating skincancer rates, it is important to examine the role that media exposure may play in promoting risky behaviors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute to the first author. We thank Heather Butler, Shoshanna Elias, Emily Gray, Karen Lee, Amanda Schuyler, Jennifer Teutscher, and Gali Weissberger for their help in carrying out this project.

Notes

¹It should be noted that because the stimuli in Experiment 1 were digital images (to allow for alteration of skin tone) of photographer's models (generally against a white background) a control condition similar to that employed in Experiment 2 (i.e., containing products but no models) was not feasible.

²Analyses performed controlling for ethnicity or eliminating the results of non-Caucasians produced the same pattern of results in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2.

³This involved an analysis of proportions given that inadvertently only 4 of the 18 images shown to control participants during the recognition task had appeared in the binder.

⁴Additional indirect support for this notion can be obtained by comparing the tanning attitudes of participants in Experiment 1 to those of participants from the nonintervention control condition in a previous study who completed six of the seven items used in the current tanning attitudes index (Mahler, Kulik, Gerrard, & Gibbons, 2007). These essentially “baseline tanning attitudes” (M = 2.37, SD = .63) were not significantly different from the tanning attitudes (six-item index) of Experiment 1 participants in the tan model condition (M = 2.44, SD = .93; p > .50) but marginally higher than those of participants in the untanned condition (M = 2.13, SD = .75; p < .10). Note that this is essentially the same pattern of findings as that obtained in Experiment 2 (i.e., less favorable tanning attitudes among those in the untanned condition relative both to the control and tan conditions, and no difference between the tanning attitudes of controls and those in the tan condition). Although the “baseline tanning attitudes” did not differ from any of the Experiment 2 conditions (M = 2.44, SD = .88; M = 2.19, SD = .74; and M = 2.59, SD = .85 for tan, untanned, and control conditions, respectively), the pattern of means is again consistent with the notion that viewing untanned images lowered perceptions of the importance of tanning.