Can body image dissatisfaction be reduced by teaching people to be more critical of airbrushed ads?

Fashion advertising uses extensively airbrushing technology to change models’ body shape and appearance in general. Hundreds of studies have shown that for the majority of women, being exposed to such unrealistic figures leads to low self-esteem, body image dissatisfaction and negative feelings about the way they look. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the ‘airbrushing culture’.

So can we teach people to be critical of unrealistic body ideals? And can this reduce body image dissatisfaction?

The answer to both questions seems to be ‘Yes’.
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An experimental study evaluated the impact of an educational intervention concerned with the power of airbrushing at reducing body dissatisfaction among 200 women. The air-brushing intervention informed people about the extent of airbrushing used in the media and illustrated how easy it is to actually change someone’s appearance using technology. Women who did not receive the intervention, reported greater body dissatisfaction after being exposed to thin images as compared to women who were informed about airbrushing. Overall, those who received the intervention reported less change in body image dissatisfaction as measured by the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) regardless of which images (thin or fat) they had been exposed to. The results suggest that women can be taught to be more critical of the methods used by the media as a means to reduce body dissatisfaction. Incorporating such interventions into school and university health education campaigns could possibly help in minimizing the detrimental impact of media images on people’s satisfaction with their own body.

For more information: Ogden, J., and Sherwood, F. (2008). Reducing the impact of media images: an evaluation of the effectiveness of an airbrushing educational intervention on body dissatisfaction. Health Education, 108, 489-500