Interpersonal rejection results in increased appearance satisfaction for women who rely on body weight for self-worth

•Women higher in body weight contingent self-worth (BWCSW) report lower appearance satisfaction.•BWCSW moderates the effects of social rejection on appearance satisfaction.•Following rejection, women with higher BWCSW report greater appearance satisfaction.•This reaction from high BWCSW women is interpreted as appearance compensatory self-enhancement.

This study examined whether body weight contingent self-worth (BWCSW), the tendency to base self-worth on body weight, moderates the effects of interpersonal rejection on self-esteem and body satisfaction. In an online survey, female undergraduates (N = 148) completed measures of trait self-esteem, depression, and BWCSW. In a subsequent lab session, participants were assigned to either an interpersonal rejection or to a neutral control condition, after which they completed measures of state self-esteem and body satisfaction. Compared to women with lower BWCSW, women with higher BWCSW reported lower appearance self-esteem (p = .001) and body satisfaction (p = .004) across conditions. However, they reacted to rejection by reporting greater appearance self-esteem (p = .034) and body satisfaction (p = .021). Rejection had no effect on women with lower BWCSW. The reaction of women with higher BWCSW is interpreted as a compensatory self-enhancement response to interpersonal rejection within a self-important domain.