The Romance of Self-objectification: Does Priming RomanticRelationships Induce States of Self-objectification Among Women?

摘要

Objectification theory suggests that women in-ternalize an observer's perspective on the body (selfobjectification; Fredrickson and Roberts, Psychol WomenQ 22:173-206, 1997); however, certain contexts andthoughts may make self-objectification more likely. Be-cause the pursuit of relationships is tied to attractiveness,the present study examines whether women have anautomatic link between self-objectification and romanticrelationships. Using a US undergraduate sample, women(N=86) of different relationship statuses were eitherexposed to relationship-related or neutral words in a lexicaldecision making task. Following relationship priming,single women showed greater self-objectification andwomen in relationships showed less self-objectification.These findings are discussed in terms of self-objectificationtheory and the importance of attractiveness and beauty inthe pursuit of relationships.