Effect of internalization of the media body ideal on cognitive inhibition in female college students: the roles of body surveillance and physical exercise (opens in new tab)

Mass media present thinness as a beauty standard for young females, and there is concern about the negative effects on young females who internalize the media body ideal. One possibility is that preoccupation with thinness consumes cognitive resources that would otherwise be available for cognitive inhibition. Study 1 (N = 148) was an experiment in which female college students were presented with videos portraying either the media body ideal or landscapes. The media body ideal group showed s...