Sex Roles (2008) 59:586–601 597satisfacti<strong>on</strong> is significantly related to body esteem, weightc<strong>on</strong>cerns, and being in good physical c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>. Also, theseresults suggest that body satisfacti<strong>on</strong> is not related to sexualattractiveness.<str<strong>on</strong>g>Body</str<strong>on</strong>g> EsteemIn order to test the first hypothesis, which stated thatplaying a video game that emphasized the “ideal” bodywould decrease body esteem, a <strong>on</strong>e-way repeated measuresanalysis <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> variance (ANOVA) was c<strong>on</strong>ducted in order todetermine if there would be a change in body esteem frombaseline to after video game play. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> results showed asignificant main effect for time, F(1,29)=4.92, p
598 Sex Roles (2008) 59:586–601cause negative body-images in male participants, and ifplaying a video game that emphasized the ideal femalebody would cause negative body-images in female participants.Across both studies, the results showed that afterplaying such video games male and female participants hada decrease in their body esteem. For men, this effect wasseen in the significant decrease in the BES scores and themarginal decrease in the MBIES state scores. For women,this was seen in the significant decrease in the BES scores.This results supports past research that shows men andwomen will have a significant decrease in body esteemafter viewing stimuli that emphasizes the ideal body foreach gender. Despite this similarity between men andwomen, the results also indicated that men had a decreasein their positive attitudes toward muscularity and their drivefor muscularity, which was operati<strong>on</strong>ally defined asindicative <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> body satisfacti<strong>on</strong>. Females did not have adecrease in their body satisfacti<strong>on</strong>. This c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong> shouldbe interpreted with a great deal <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> cauti<strong>on</strong>, because thequesti<strong>on</strong>naires used to assess body satisfacti<strong>on</strong> in males andfemales were different.Interestingly, these results are independent <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> a number<str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> measured or manipulated factors in these studies. First,and most important, the impact that video games have <strong>on</strong>the body <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> those who play such games is c<strong>on</strong>sistent acrossgender, as both men and women are negatively affected byvideo games that emphasize the body. Sec<strong>on</strong>d, these resultsare independent <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> the participant’s BMI. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>refore, thebody type <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> the participant did not significantly moderatethe overall relati<strong>on</strong>ship between body-emphasizing videogame play and negative body-images. Third, these resultsare independent <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> how many hours the participants spendplaying video games during an average week. Thus, it canbe speculated that it is the immediate short-term exposureto these video game character’s body rather than l<strong>on</strong>g-termexposure to video games.<str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>oretical Implicati<strong>on</strong>s<str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>oretically, this adds to the existing literature by showingthat yet another mass media format (video games) canc<strong>on</strong>tribute to negative body-images in males and females.<str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>se results support the Tripartite Influence Model(Smolak et al. 2005) and the Cafri et al. (2003) models byshowing that exposure to the mass media that emphasizesthe male and female body will increase various comp<strong>on</strong>entc<strong>on</strong>structs <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> negative body-images. However, resultsshowed that BMI and the amount <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> time spent playingvideo games did not moderate the overall effect betweenvideo game play and negative body image, which supportsthe Tripartite Influence Model. Both <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> these models statethat these negative body-images increase the probability <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g>eating disorders in women and increased behaviors associatedwith the pursuit <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> muscularity (e.g., steroid usage) inmales.As previously stated, there has been research which hasused magazine pictures (Humphreys and Paxt<strong>on</strong> 2004),televisi<strong>on</strong> commercials (Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn 2004),and acti<strong>on</strong> figures (Barlett et al. 2005; Barlett et al. 2006) asa negative body-image inducing stimuli. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>re has not beenany published research <strong>on</strong> the impact that video games have<strong>on</strong> negative body-images. Determining which media formathas the most impact <strong>on</strong> negative body-image may be thefirst step to determine which format is the most harmful,which may help with negative body-image preventi<strong>on</strong>programs. Interestingly, Groesz et al. (2002) found thatthe media format did not significantly moderate the overallrelati<strong>on</strong>ship between media and negative body-images;however, this may be a functi<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> the small number <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g>studies for each media category. It is speculated that playinga video game that emphasizes the ideal body may have themost impact because video games <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g>ten have an immersi<strong>on</strong>factor, which is defined by how involved the player can bein the game (Schneider et al. 2004). In other words, in avideo game the player typically assumes the role <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> themain character, which leads to a higher degree <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g>immersi<strong>on</strong> in that video game. If that character is amuscular male or thin female, then the player will assumethe role <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> that character, which may have explained theeffects <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> the current study. Future research should look todetermine if the amount <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> immersi<strong>on</strong> is correlated withnegative body-image after body-emphasizing video gameplay, and if higher negative body-images are attained bydifferent types <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> mass media (e.g., video games versustelevisi<strong>on</strong> versus magazines).Limitati<strong>on</strong>s and Future ResearchDespite the results, there are some limitati<strong>on</strong>s <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> thisresearch. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> first is that the samples in both studies didnot vary much <strong>on</strong> their BMI. In fact, using the Nati<strong>on</strong>alInstitute <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Health’s classificati<strong>on</strong> system, there wereunequal cell sizes when BMI was used as a categoricalvariable making the results from such a classificati<strong>on</strong>uninterpretable. Future research should sample participantswho have a wide variati<strong>on</strong> in their BMI and determine ifvideo game play impacts everybody, independent <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> theirBMI.<str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> sec<strong>on</strong>d possible limitati<strong>on</strong> is the inability to directlycompare males and females to see which gender is the mostimpacted by body-emphasizing video game play. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>current study could not make such a comparis<strong>on</strong> for manyreas<strong>on</strong>s including: (a) different video games, (b) differentvideo game systems, and (c) different questi<strong>on</strong>naires. Ifcomparis<strong>on</strong> between men and women needs to be d<strong>on</strong>e, thefirst two reas<strong>on</strong>s are easily managed as l<strong>on</strong>g as an
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