“I just feel so guilty”: The role of introjected regulation in linking appearance goals for exercise with women's body image

- We investigate the link between women's appearance goals for exercise and body image.
- The paper employs correlational and experimental methods to explore this link.
- Guilt-related exercise motivation mediated the appearance goals and body image link.
- Women primed with exercise-related guilt experienced greater post-test body anxiety.

Appearance goals for exercise are consistently associated with negative body image, but research has yet to consider the processes that link these two variables. Self-determination theory offers one such process: introjected (guilt-based) regulation of exercise behavior. Study 1 investigated these relationships within a cross-sectional sample of female UK students (n = 215, 17-30 years). Appearance goals were indirectly, negatively associated with body image due to links with introjected regulation. Study 2 experimentally tested this pathway, manipulating guilt relating to exercise and appearance goals independently and assessing post-test guilt and body anxiety (n = 165, 18-27 years). The guilt manipulation significantly increased post-test feelings of guilt, and these increases were associated with increased post-test body anxiety, but only for participants in the guilt condition. The implications of these findings for self-determination theory and the importance of guilt for the body image literature are discussed.