appearance is also significant in the final model of cosmetic procedural likelihood , such that increased partner appearance importance is related to increased procedural likelihood . An emerging adult , who holds his or her partner ’ s up to higher standards , might reflect more on how others look and therefore may think more about how he or she can alter his or her body to look better . Although having an overweight favorite character was not significantly related to appearance importance , partner ’ s appearance importance , or likelihood to get cosmetic procedures , this could be because there are few truly overweight characters on TV or that overweight characters are not used as comparison targets . Future research can examine this idea experimentally or use a larger sample of emerging adults to find more people who do have overweight favorite characters on TV . Other characteristics of TV characters , such as attractiveness and likeability , could be examined in future research to determine which character traits exemplify the social comparison process and how these traits affect appearance importance and other potential outcomes of social comparison .
In sum , this research offers important insights on how emerging adults may be affected by media images as they relate to importance given to one ’ s appearance and partner ’ s appearance , and one ’ s likelihood to
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