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Abstract
Extrinsic contingency focus reflects people's tendency to derive self-esteem by meeting socially (versus personally) defined standards. Three studies examined the relationship between extrinsic contingency focus (ECF) and responses to social ideals. The results of Studies 1 and 2 showed that exposure to advertisements that contained idealized body images led high-ECF participants to engage in behaviors directed toward the attainment of the ideal. For low-ECF participants, exposure to this type of advertisement led to behaviors aimed at resisting the social ideal. Study 3 showed that self-affirmation reduced striving to meet and resist social ideals among high- and low-ECF individuals. Implications of these findings relative to the body image literature and directions for future research are discussed.
Acknowledgements
We thank Rachel Campbell, Kim Noels, Leo Mos, John Precejus, Mike Gillespie and Gerald Häubl for all of their careful comments and insights. We also thank Jackie Main, Shannon Forsyth, Renee Gagnon, Sharon So, and April Gusnowski for all their hard work and diligence in the lab. Special thanks to the Grand Valley State Institutional Marketing Department (Ben Rapin and Daniel Slaughter) for all of their hard work and attention to detail.
Notes
1. We did not expect an advertisement × ECF interaction on the manipulation check questions because these items did not tap participants' implicit desire to follow the standard, or resist it. These items assessed participants' perception of the idealized body images without any reference to how they might react to it.
2. Previous research (Leboeuf & Losier, Citation2012; Williams et al., Citation2010) indicates that scores on the ECFS are generally spread across its full range (20–100).