“Words Will Never Hurt Me!”: Implementation Intentions Regulate Attention to Stigmatizing Comments About Appearance

Although the adverse effects of receiving abusive comments about appearance are well documented, there is a dearth of research about how such comments can be managed effectively. The present research examined whether forming if-then plans (i.e., implementation intentions; Gollwitzer, 1999) enables women to ignore stigmatizing appearance-related comments. Female staff and students at a UK university (N = 145) completed a test of attention with either no audio input (control condition), having formed a goal intention to ignore stigmatizing comments (goal intention condition), or having formed an if-then plan to ignore such comments (implementation intention condition). Findings indicated that forming an if-then plan led to (a) improved test performance compared to forming a mere goal intention, and (b) equivalent performance as compared to control participants. Moreover, participants who formed implementation intentions were less distressed by the comments, and this effect was especially pronounced among participants with low body satisfaction. Implications of the findings for research on both stigmatization and implementation intentions are discussed.