“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.