Background: Self-objectification increases women’s appearance monitoring and social physique anxiety (SPA) and diminishes their task-related concentration. Clothing style (tight and revealing (TR) versus loose and concealing (LC)) and preferences (comfort) may predict self-objectification-informed outcomes. Objectives: This study was designed to examine the influence of athletic clothing style on appearance monitoring, SPA, concentration, and clothing comfort, and tested the association between clothing comfort and self-objectification variables among women. Design: We used an experimental design conducted in a single laboratory session. Methods: Participants ( N = 73; M age = 20.77 ± 3.15 years) were randomly assigned to wear TR or LC athletic clothing and then completed SPA, concentration, and clothing comfort measures, and had their body awareness primed. Two raters independently counted appearance monitoring behaviours (e.g., mirror gazing, adjusting clothing) during task performance. Results: Women in the TR group engaged in more appearance monitoring and rated their clothing as more uncomfortable compared to the LC group. Poorer comfort ratings predicted higher SPA and lower concentration, after adjusting for trait self-objectification, clothing style, and body size perception. Conclusion: The present study generated methodological, theoretical, and applied impacts. First, this study introduced a novel behavioural method for assessing appearance monitoring through systematic video coding, offering a new approach for examining appearance monitoring in experimental contexts. Second, extending prior research, findings uniquely indicate clothing style is related to objective forms of appearance monitoring. Finally, results suggest encouraging women to wear comfortable exercise clothing may help reduce SPA and improve concentration, highlighting clothing comfort as an important individual difference and extending theoretical understanding of contextual factors relevant to Objectification Theory. Future research should examine objective and covert forms of appearance monitoring and further explore how variations in athletic clothing style and comfort relate to women’s body image and cognitive resources.
Vani et al. (Sun,) studied this question.