Materialism and the Attitudes to Cosmetic Surgery: The Mediating Roles of Body Surveillance and Social Appearance Anxiety

Zhu Yanli; Sun Jingru

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.202304016

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4) : 889-896. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.202304016

Social, Personality & Organizational Psychology

Materialism and the Attitudes to Cosmetic Surgery: The Mediating Roles of Body Surveillance and Social Appearance Anxiety

Zhu Yanli, Sun Jingru

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Abstract

The objectification theory proposes that women's experiences of having their bodies sexually objectified could lead to self-objectify by internalizing the observer's perspective on their bodies. Although the objectification theory was originally proposed to explain the effect of self-objectification on women's mental health, recent studies have shown that self-objectification has a negative effect on men as well, including body dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety and so on. According to the consumer culture impact model, materialism can increase the tendency to link appearance to self-worth, and people with high levels of materialism often view body as a commodity that can be exchanged for other things, such as money and social status. They believe that the pursuit of these extrinsic goals could lead to the success rigidly defined by the society. However, aesthetic standards change with sociocultural changes, and frequent body surveillance may lead to social appearance anxiety, which in turn may facilitate individuals to adopt positive attitudes toward cosmetic surgery.
This study attempted to establish the bidirectional mediating model of body surveillance and social appearance anxiety between materialism and attitudes to cosmetic surgery. To test this model, a total of 856 college students (69.63% female), aged 17~22 (M_age ± SD = 19.04± 1.01 years) , were recruited from three universities in Henan province by using cluster sampling, and were asked to complete a questionnaire including Material Value Scale, Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale, The Objectified Body Consciousness Scale and Social Appearance Anxiety Scale.
Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were utilized to describe means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients among materialism, body surveillance, social appearance anxiety and attitude to cosmetic surgery. The Mplus 8.3 was used to test the mediation effects. The results indicated that: (1) Materialistic values were significantly positively correlated with individual attitudes to cosmetic surgery; (2) Both body surveillance and social appearance anxiety mediated the association between materialistic values and cosmetic surgery attitudes; (3) Materialistic values could predict cosmetic surgery attitudes both by the path from body surveillance to social appearance anxiety and the path from social appearance anxiety to body surveillance, which indicated a bidirectional mediation effect between materialistic values and cosmetic surgery through the mediating effect of body surveillance and social appearance anxiety.
The study explored the relationship between materialistic values and cosmetic surgery attitudes and the mechanism, which supported and deepened the consumer culture impact model and objectification theory. The results suggested that individuals who may be influenced by their values, may use cosmetic surgery as a means of enhancing their physical attractiveness. Cosmetic surgery advertisements, emphasizing the simplicity and convenience of cosmetic surgery and the benefits of successful cosmetic surgery, tend to underestimate the risks of cosmetic surgery. Actually, the core characteristics of social appearance anxiety include both dissatisfaction with appearance and the gap between the actual self and the ideal self. Social appearance anxiety that results from frequent body surveillance is not reduced but increased by cosmetic surgery. In practice, body surveillance can be taken as the target of the intervention to reduce the influence of materialism on the attitude toward plastic surgery. Additionally, college students should be guided to develop correct and positive values.

Key words

materialism value / cosmetic surgery attitudes / body surveillance / social appearance anxiety

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Zhu Yanli, Sun Jingru. Materialism and the Attitudes to Cosmetic Surgery: The Mediating Roles of Body Surveillance and Social Appearance Anxiety[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(4): 889-896 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.202304016

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