Self-objectification and cognitive inhibition among women: A moderated mediating model of appearance anxiety and self-compassion

According to objectification theory, self-objectification adversely affects women's cognitive performance, leading to cognitive inhibition. However, results are inconsistent, and few studies have explored mechanisms and protective factors of cognitive inhibition. This study adopted a numerical Stroop paradigm with varying interference levels to investigate self-objectification's effect on women's cognitive inhibition, and highlights the role of interference level in understanding the effects of self-objectification on cognitive inhibition, revealing that self-objectification impaired cognitive performance primarily under the high-interference level. It also identifies appearance anxiety as a key mediator and self-compassion as a protective factor. By demonstrating that the effect of self-objectification on cognitive inhibition depends on interference level, this study resolves inconsistencies in previous research and extends objectification theory by identifying high cognitive load as a critical boundary condition and revealing self-compassion as a protective factor. These findings inform interventions to reduce self-objectification's cognitive impairment, particularly in high-demand tasks affecting women's performance.