Reframing Self-Objectified Women’s Loneliness Experience: The Mediating Roles of Intrasexual Competition and Romantic Interpretation Bias

Abstract Despite the fact that women’s self-objectification is a psychological process embedded within interpersonal interactions, few studies have investigated the interpersonal consequences of self-objectification. Even though some studies linked women’s self-objectification with loneliness, an experience commonly occurring in interpersonal contexts, they produced inconsistent results regarding the association and still explained it from an intrapersonal perspective. Through the lens of interpersonal dynamics, this research attempted to reframe the relationship between self-objectification and loneliness. Specifically, two studies using distinct methods were conducted to investigate whether stronger intrasexual competition tendency when interacting with women and stronger romantic interpretation bias (RIB) when interacting with men, respectively, could explain how self-objectification among women affects loneliness. Study 1, a seven-day diary study, found that female university students experiencing strong self-objectifying feelings on a given day were more likely to engage in intrasexual competition, resulting in increased loneliness that day, even after controlling for their trait self-objectification, self-perceived attractiveness, social desirability, and demographic factors, such as relationship status. Similarly, Study 2, an experiment, revealed that women primed with high self-objectification exhibited stronger intrasexual competition tendencies and heightened feelings of loneliness, even after controlling for self-perceived attractiveness, social desirability, relationship satisfaction, and demographic factors such as relationship status. Although the promoting effect of women’s self-objectification on RIB was detected in both studies, RIB could not in turn predict reduced loneliness. Our study contributes to the literature on self-objectification by exploring its interpersonal consequences and provides directions for interventions aimed at reducing women’s loneliness.