外表吸引力對自我評價的影響--自我層面的調節作用

Abstract

本研究主要探討外表吸引力對個體自我評價的影響。我們同時操弄比較對象外表與個體的理想意象符合與否，及個體對不同相似情境的詮釋方式，來探討這兩變項對個體整體自尊評價及外表吸引力自評所造成的衝擊。 本實驗為2（符合理想意象與否：符合／不符合）×4（相似情境：高相似／高相似觸發個人我／高相似觸發社會我／低相似）的二因子受試者間設計。依變項為整體自尊評價，及外表吸引力自評等等。結果如預期，在符合理想意象的情境下，高相似組在整體自尊評價上顯著低於低相似組，出現對比效果；高相似模糊觸發社會我組，則有類化效果，整體自尊評價顯著高於高相似組，而外表吸引力自評的整體變化趨勢則與自尊評價相同。

Previous research on physical attractiveness focused mainly on the occurrence of contrast effects. The study examined the influence of physical attractiveness on individual’s self-evaluation. To enhance the impact of physical attractiveness, we matched the comparison other with subject’s ideal image of an attractive person. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of self-activation on the interpretations of self-other similarity and self-evaluation. One hundred and nineteen female participants were assigned to a 2 (ideal image: match vs. not match) × 4 (similarity condition: high vs. high and primed with the “I” concept vs. high and primed with the “WE” concept vs. low) factorial design. The dependent measures were global self-evaluation, self-ratings of physical attractiveness and evaluation toward the target person. The results indicated that, when the comparison other didn’t match with subject’s ideal image, similarity condition made no difference. On the other hand, when the comparison other did match with subject’s ideal image, a contrast effect was found. That is, subjects in the high similarity condition had significantly lower self-evaluation than those who in the low similarity condition. We also found that, if the comparison other matched with subject’s ideal image, then subjects who were primed with the “WE” concept would assimilate with the target person, and therefore, obtained significantly higher self-evaluation than subjects in the high similarity condition. In sum, our hypotheses were mainly supported. However, we did not find that subjects who were primed with the “I” concept showed a contrast effect on self-evaluation. We speculated it might be due to the activation of uniqueness. Furthermore, a “two-stage model of social comparison” was proposed to explain the results.