Using an experimental methodology, the present study assessed adolescent girls’ and
young adult women’s perceptions of a peer who presented herself on Facebook in either
a sexualized or nonsexualized manner. Fifty-eight adolescent girls and 60 young adult
women viewed a Facebook profile with either a sexualized profile photo or a nonsexu-
alized profile photo and then evaluated the profile owner. Results indicated that the
sexualized profile owner was considered less physically attractive, less socially attrac-
tive, and less competent to complete tasks. There was a main effect of age in the
judgment of social attractiveness, with young adult women giving higher ratings than
adolescent girls. There were no other main effects of age or interactions between age
and condition. Findings suggest that using a sexualized profile photo on Facebook
comes with relational costs for girls and women. Strategies for educating young people
about new media use and sexualization are discussed.
Keywords: sexualization, objectification, media, social networking, social media
There is considerable cultural pressure on
girls and women in the United States, beginning
in childhood, to portray themselves as sexy
(American Psychological Association [APA],
2007; Levin & Kilbourne, 2008; Zurbriggen &
Roberts, 2013). Indeed, current standards for
female beauty include a sexy ideal body
(Murnen, 2011; Murnen & Smolak, 2013;
Tiggemann, 2013). This standard is highly vis-
ible through traditional media such as TV and
magazines (Stankiewicz & Rosselli, 2008;
Ward, 2003). Evidence suggests that sexualiza-
tion is also apparent in new media (Hall, West,
& McIntyre, 2012). Complying with the sexy
cultural mandate brings girls and women bene-
fits, such as increased interest from boys and
men, as well as costs, such as lower evaluations
of competence (Murnen & Smolak, 2013). In
the present study, we investigated a possible
cost of self-sexualizing for adolescent girls and
young adult women: negative evaluations by
other girls and women. Specifically, we as-
sessed adolescent girls’ and young adult wom-
en’s perceptions of a peer who self-sexualizes
on Facebook. Because social networking is tre-
mendously popular among young people (Boyd,
2007; Lenhart et al., 2011), it is especially im-
portant to investigate how sexualization oper-
ates through this cultural activity. Furthermore,
our study makes a novel contribution to the
research literature by examining self-sexualiza-
tion through user-generated media and by in-
cluding adolescent girls in addition to young
adult women in our sample.
Youth Media Practices
Youth today are growing up in an unprece-
dented media environment. On average, young
people, aged 8 to 18 years, spend 7.5 hr per day
engaged with media (Rideout, Foehr, & Rob-
This article was published Online First July 14, 2014.
Elizabeth A. Daniels, College of Liberal Arts, Depart-
ment of Psychology, Oregon State University Cascades;
Eileen L. Zurbriggen, Social Sciences Division, Department
of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz.
This research was supported by a Circle of Excellence
grant from Oregon State University Cascades. We thank the
many research assistants at OSU Cascades, who assisted on
this project for their careful work, especially Monika Cas-
taneda, and the participants who volunteered their time to
take part in this study. An earlier version of this project was
presented at the 2012 Biennial Society for Research on
Adolescence Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-
dressed to Elizabeth A. Daniels, University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs, 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado
Springs, CO 80918. E-mail: daniels.psychology@gmail.com
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
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Psychology of Popular Media Culture © 2014 American Psychological Association
2016, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2–14 2160-4134/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000048