Testing the effects of disclaimer labels on body dissatisfaction in a sample of young women in Lebanon -

Abstract

Policymakers, healthcare advocates and body image activists have recently obligated media displaying thin-ideal images to include a warning or disclaimer label on them. The labels alert consumers to the digital modifications applied to the models in the images, and aim to prevent women viewing these images from experiencing body dissatisfaction. Previous experimental investigations have yielded conflicting results with regards to the effectiveness of the labels in preventing body dissatisfaction. The present study aimed to address the limitations in these labels by creating and testing the effects of a modified label on body dissatisfaction in a sample of Lebanese women enrolled in the Introductory Psychology course at the American University of Beirut. The study was a between-participants experiment involving 85 participants across three groups (a control group; a group exposed to a traditional disclaimer label; and a group exposed to a novel, modified disclaimer label). It was hypothesized that the novel, modified disclaimer label condition would correct for the limitations of the traditional disclaimer labels in previous studies that had led to an increase in state body dissatisfaction, and had triggered state social comparison. This study also aimed to investigate how trait body satisfaction, trait social comparison, and thin ideal internalization moderate the effects of the labels on state body dissatisfaction, and how state social comparison mediates this effect. Results did not support these hypotheses. Specifically, women exposed to all three experimental conditions experienced an increase in state body dissatisfaction from pretest to posttest, and this increase was statistically significant in the control and traditional label conditions. Furthermore, none of the proposed moderators or mediators were found to be significant predictors of posttest state body dissatisfaction. Finally, body mass index was found to be a significant negative predictor of trait body satisfaction. These findings strongly sugg