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Media’s prevailing thin-body ideal plays a vital role in young females’ body image development, but the co-occurring impact of peer feedback is understudied. The present study used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to test media imagery and peer feedback combinations on neural activity related to thin body ideals. Twenty-four healthy female participants rated body sizes of bikini models (‘too thin’ or ‘normal-weight’), directly followed by ostensible peer feedback (‘too thin’ or ‘normal-weight’). Consistent with prior studies on social feedback processing, results showed increased brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and bilateral insula in incongruent situations: When participants rated media models as ‘normal-weight’, while peer feedback indicated the models as ‘too thin’ (or vice versa). This effect was stronger for young females with lower self-esteem. Our results suggest that media-by-peer interactions have pronounced effects on females’ body-ideals.
Jolanda Veldhuis, VU U Amsterdam
Mara Van der Meulen, Department of Psychology, Leiden University; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
Barbara R. Braams, Department of Psychology, Leiden University; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
Sabine Peters, Department of Psychology, Leiden University; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
Elly A. Konijn, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Eveline A. Crone, Department of Psychology, Leiden University; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition