Self-objectification, the internalization of an observer’s appearance-based perspective of one’s body, has been theorized and demonstrated to reduce body awareness among women. In this field study, we propose self-objectification as the mechanism to explain the oft-observed phenomenon where women wearing little clothing appear unbothered by cold weather, positing that self-objectification obstructs women’s feelings of cold. We surveyed women outside nightclubs on cold nights, assessed self-objectification, and asked participants to report how cold they felt. Anonymous photos were taken and coded for amount of skin exposure. We hypothesized that self-objectification would moderate the relationship between clothing coverage and reports of feeling cold. Our hypothesis was supported: women low in self-objectification showed a positive, intuitive, relationship between skin exposure and perceptions of coldness, but women more highly focused on their appearance did not feel colder when wearing less clothing. These findings offer support for the relationship between self-objectification and awareness of bodily sensations in the context of a naturalistic setting. We discuss implications of these findings, and also consider limitations, an alternative explanation, and directions for future research.

中文翻译：

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当看起来“热”意味着不感到冷时：自我客观化抑制冷感的证据

自我客观化，即观察者基于外表的身体视角的内化，已被理论化并证明会降低女性的身体意识。在这项实地研究中，我们提出自我客观化作为解释经常观察到的现象的机制，即女性穿着很少的衣服似乎不受寒冷天气的影响，假设自我客观化会阻碍女性的寒冷感觉。我们在寒冷的夜晚对夜总会外的女性进行了调查，评估了自我客观化，并要求参与者报告她们感觉有多冷。拍摄匿名照片并根据皮肤暴露量进行编码。我们假设自我客观化会缓和衣服覆盖率和感觉寒冷报告之间的关系。我们的假设得到了支持：自我客观化程度低的女性表现出积极的、直觉的、皮肤暴露与寒冷感知之间的关系，但更注重外表的女性在穿得更少时不会感到更冷。这些发现为自然主义背景下自我客观化与身体感觉意识之间的关系提供了支持。我们讨论了这些发现的含义，并考虑了局限性、替代解释和未来研究的方向。