Although researchers have postulated that the thin-ideal body image portrayed in the media contributes to eating pathology among females, little research has directly examined the effects of these images on women. The central aim of the present study was to experimentally assess the effects of exposure to the thin-ideal on women's affect, body satisfaction, and endorsement of the thin-ideal stereotype. The secondary aim was to link these putative mediators to bulimic symptomatol ogy. Female undergraduates (N= 157) were randomly exposed to pictures from magazines containing either ultra-thin models, average-sized models, or no mod els. Results indicated that exposure to the thin-ideal produced depression, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity, and body dissatisfaction. Further, multiple regression analyses indicated that negative affect, body dissatisfaction, and subscription to the thin-ideal predicted bulimic symptoms. Implications for the sociocultural model of bulimia, prevention, and future research are discussed.

Sociocultural factors are thought to play a central role in the promotion and maintenance of eating disorders. These sociocultural pressures in clude the ultra-slender ideal-body image (or thin-ideal) espoused for women in Western cultures, the centrality of appearance in the female gender-role, and the importance of appearance for women's societal success (Stice, in press; Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, & Rodin, 1986). Ac cording to the sociocultural model of bulimia, eating disorders are a product of the increasing pressures for women in our society to achieve an ultra-slender body (Wilson & Eldredge, 1992). This societal obsession with weight is so ubiquitous that a moderate degree of body dissatisfac tion is currently normative among women (Rodin, Silberstein, & Stri-