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The media impacts a young woman's body image more than 'home influences', at a higher level than their male counterparts.
Cosmetic and modeling brands have received heat in recent years for perpetuating unrealistic body types achieved through airbrushing and photoshopping. Some recent campaigns by Dove and Star Models try to combat these body image issues by using real people, reporting the heavy editing jobs, or presenting the eating disorders some adopt to try to achieve the 'movie star body'. But to what extent does media affect body image? And are these commercial stands actually going to boost sales?
The latest YouGov research shows that media influences in general, including television, movies and music, have a larger effect on women than on men. Women also perceive that media has a greater impact (~10%) on body image in general (for both genders), than men do.
Media has more of an impact on body image than home influences do, for women only. People were asked to rate how much of an impact media influences and home influences had on body image. People reported that both home influences and media influences have an equally large impact (44%) on a young man's body image. However, there was a 13% gap difference for women, with a higher number of people (67%) reporting that media influences has a large impact on a young woman's body image than home influences (54%) does.
Although there are differences in the way media influences affect young men and young women, there was little difference between men and women when asked if a campaign which used "real people", would it make them more inclined to buy it. Most said it would not impact them (47%) but these campaigns may yet prove effective as 36% of people said they would be more likely to buy a product advertised with average looking people.
Full poll results can be found here.
Image: Getty.