Television viewing and self-perceived health, weight, and physical fitness: Evidence for the cultivation hypothesis

Television (TV) often depicts a version of the world that differs from soci al reality in several ways. The present study examined the relationship bet ween the amount of TV people watch, how important TV is for their entertain ment and information-gathering purposes, and their perceptions of their hea lth, weight, and physical fitness. Regression analyses showed that, after c ontrolling for their actual level of obesity, health perceptions were negat ively related to both the amount of time spent watching TV and TV's perceiv ed importance as an entertainment medium, but for women only. In addition, those who watched a lot of TV tended to see themselves as more overweight t han did those who watched less TV. The implications of these findings for t he cultivation hypothesis. as well as issues of replication, were discussed .