Beauty Over Death!
study discovers why women place more emphasis on tanning than their own health

Each year, millions of people go to tanning salons to feel better about themselves, even though exposure to ultraviolet radiation is the most common cause of skin cancer. Two studies conducted by Jamie Arndt, assistant professor of Pyschological Sciences, along with MU doctoral student Clay Routledge and Jamie Goldenberg, assistant professor at the University of California-Davis, found that women expressed intentions to cease tanning only when they focused their concerns on death. However, interest in tanning increased when women were exposed to media images of tanned individuals.

"One answer to this question is because self-esteem provides protection from deeply rooted existential anxieties about death," said Arndt. "There is a distinct difference in a person’s behavior when their concern of mortality is in or outside their conscious attention and when such factors as societal standards and self-esteem are involved."

The first study with 45 women found that when women were consciously thinking about death they were more likely to report wanting to purchase sunscreen products with a high sun protection factor (SPF), However, when women were distracted from thoughts of mortality they were more interested in products with a lower SPF rating and a better tan.

In the second study, 75 women answered a survey on feelings of mortality or another aversive topic, were distracted from those thoughts, and then looked at visual images of a tanned woman on a beach or a separate image of a beach ball. Arndt and his team found that women who were distracted from thoughts of death and exposed to the tanned woman image were more likely to purchase tanning products, while the women who saw the beach ball image were less likely.

Arndt believes this research can be the catalyst for social and political movements directed towards undermining mass media and marketing campaigns that associate certain physical characteristics or harmful products with standards of self-worth.

"When society decides not to celebrate the beauty of tanned skin, but instead focus on healthier values such as protecting oneself from the harmful rays of the sun, then we can help individuals defend themselves more productively against the conscious and unconscious concerns about death," Arndt said.

Their combined studies, A Time to Tan: Proximal and Distal Effects of Mortality Salience on Sun Exposure Intentions, are scheduled for publication in an upcoming issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The National Cancer Institute funded the study.

Additional links:

Jamie Arndt
Department of Psychological Sciences

Article abstract (scroll down)

Research Team
Clay Routledge, MU Department of Psychological Sciences
Jamie Goldenberg, University of California-Davis

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