Mass Media, Self-Esteem, Body Image and Tendency to Use make up Studying the Relationship

The Purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between mass media، self-esteem، body image، and make up based on Festinger’s social comparison theory. A sample of 601 female students studying in universities of the city of Shiraz (consisting of Islamic Azad University، Payam-e Nour، and the University for Medical Sciences) participated in this study. We used survey method and prepared a questionnaire for data collection. The students were selected via Festinger’s table with an error margin of 4%. Festinger’s theory was also utilized as the theoretical framework. In this research make up was examined in its two aspects of ‘practice’، and ‘thoughtful make up’. The findings of this research show that a large proportion of our respondents used make up and were also inclined to use make up and that interestingly enough، a large proportion of the same respondents were dissatisfied with their body image. Further، significant negative relationship between self-esteem and dissatisfaction of body image and tendency to use make up were found. In addition، there were significant positive relationship between dissatisfaction of body image، practicing، and tendency to use make up. Finally، different types of media had different relationship with use and tendency to use make up، self- esteem and body image.