Muscle Talk Online and Impression Formation Based on Body Type: Comparisons Between Asian American and Caucasian American Males
- 주제(키워드) impression formation , Facebook , cross-cultural research , muscle talk
- 주제(기타) Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
- 설명문(일반) [Taniguchi, Emiko] Univ Hawaii Manoa, Dept Communicol, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA; [Lee, Hye Eun] Ewha Womans Univ, Sch Commun & Media, 403 Ewha POSCO,52 Ewhayeodae Gil, Seoul 03760, South Korea
- 관리정보기술 faculty
- 등재 SSCI, SCOPUS
- OA유형 Green Published, gold
- 발행기관 SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
- 발행년도 2019
- URI http://www.dcollection.net/handler/ewha/000000160426
- 본문언어 영어
- Published As http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1557988319845811
- PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31010364
초록/요약
This study aimed to investigate how individuals form impressions about the self-esteem and life satisfaction of a male who engages in muscle talk on Facebook. The study examined (a) how a target's body build and peer-generated comments influence observers' impression of him, and (b) how such influences might be moderated by the cultural backgrounds of observers (Asian Americans and European Americans). A mock-up Facebook profile page was created in which two factors were manipulated: the target's body build (muscular, average, and overweight) and peer-generated messages (muscle encouraging and muscle discouraging), creating six different conditions. Male college students (N = 508) were randomly assigned to one of the conditions. After viewing a mock-up Facebook page online, participants completed an online questionnaire assessing their impressions of the target's self-esteem and life satisfaction. Results showed that a muscular target was perceived as possessing higher levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction. Observers rated the target as having higher self-esteem when the target received muscle-encouraging messages than when the target received muscle-discouraging messages. No cultural differences were identified. Findings suggest the existence of weight bias when forming psychological impressions of others online. Findings also confirmed the important role of peer-generated messages in the impression formation process online.
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