Context and communication effects on social representations about the body

It is considered important to study communication on the construction and transmission of social representations (SR) and the genesis of those representations on the communicational context where they are constituted, which involves the interactional context where they are expressed and come to life. This research explored the effects of the interactional context on the social representations about the body and the role of communication on the production of different SR. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design with an audio-visual presentation in order to manipulate the context (presenting the body focused either on a health context or a beauty context), we carried out focus groups and free evocation tests pre and post discussion. Seventy-nine men and women participated on the research and were divided into 16 groups. The group interaction was classified and the verbal material of the groups was transcribed and the content categorized with the help of Atlas Ti software, and the evocations done before and after the focus groups were submitted to a Lexicographic Analysis and Correspondence factor Analysis. The effect of the health and beauty contexts can be verified on the SR the activation, the main difference resides on the role attributed to the body and having "health" as a central element on both contexts. Regarding the communicational effect, the tendency to evoke concrete and pragmatic elements, with a higher number of different contents evoked, could be observed on the first moment; as opposed to a growth on the amount of subjective elements, content complexity, and response cohesion after the direct communication. We call attention to to implication of the interaction situation on the formation of the SR of the body.