Abstract
Previous research has suggested that watching objectified short - form videos (OSV) can affect women’s self-objectification state and objectification processing. However, there is a gap in understanding the mechanisms underlying the effects above. This study employed electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the neural modulation underlying the impact of watching OSV on objectification processing. We first confirmed the influence of watching OSV on the self - objectification state using an experimental approach, and then found that this effect might be related to the immersion-related brain state, as indexed by visual beta activities. Additionally, we discovered that watching OSV also affected women’s processing of subsequent stimuli in an objectifying manner, as indexed by late positive potentials (LPPs). Correlation analysis further demonstrated that the beta activities during OSV watching were associated with the LPPs when viewing subsequent objectifying stimuli. This suggests that the effect of watching OSV on objectification processing may be linked to the visual-immersion-related brain state. Collectively, this study revealed the visual-immersion-related neural modulation underlying the effect of watching OSV on self - objectification and objectification processing. These findings expand our understanding of the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of watching OSV and inspire future intervention studies.
Authors
Liu, Z., Hu, Y., Qian, H., & Gao, X.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08029-x