the usage of such image enhancing apps. Some examples of the items are: “I like to use image correcting tools to improve my pictures before posting them online”, “I believe in being real and not using any app or tool to make my pictures look more attractive” (reverse coded), “I do not like to use image correction tools to appear more attractive than I am” (reverse coded), and “Using image correcting tools or filters allows me to show my best appearance to the world”. The mean of the seven items formed our dependent variable. An independent samples t-test revealed that Indian participants (who are more interdependent) indicated greater usage of image enhancing apps (MIndia = 4.39, SD = 1.12) compared to Americans (who are more independent) (MUSA = 3.69, SD = 1.77, t(79) = -2.13, p =.036). This suggested that similar to other, more conventional beauty products, Easterners were more likely to use such image enhancing apps compared to Westerners. Next, we proceeded to examine the underlying mechanism for our phenomenon. Method One hundred and forty one female participants in the age group 18-35 years (Mage = 27.41 years) from the US completed the study on MTurk. Participants read the same description of CULTURE & BEAUTY 22 image enhancing apps mentioned in the pilot study above. Next, we measured their attitude towards using the apps using the same items (g = .92) as those described in the pilot study. This served as our dependent variable. After measuring participants’ attitude towards the apps, we also measured their interdependent self-construal using the 12-item interdependence sub-scale (g = .83; Singelis 1994), tendency to conform, and appearance related self-discrepancy. Tendency to conform was measured using items from Mehrabian and Stefl (1995). Participants responded to a 9-item scale (g = .86; 1 = very strong disagreement to 9 = very strong agreement). Items included “I often rely on, and act upon, the advice of others”, “Generally, I’d rather given in and go along for the sake of peace than struggle to have my way”, and “I tend to rely on others when I have to make an important decision quickly”. Appearance related self-discrepancy was measured by adapting the Body Image Ideals Scale (Cash and Szymanski 1995). We presented participants with ten different physical attributes such as skin complexion, hair, and facial features. Participants were asked to think about their personal ideal (how they wish or prefer to be) and how well they currently resemble or match this personal ideal for each of the ten attributes (g = .83; 1 = exactly as I am to 4 = very unlike me). The average of the ten items formed a measure of appearance related self-discrepancy such that a higher score indicated a greater gap between their current self and their personal ideal. Results Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for all the variables. We regressed participants’ interdependent self-construal on their attitude towards the usage of appearance enhancing apps. This analysis revealed a significant effect of interdependence on the usage of appearance enhancing tools (B=.37, SE = .16, t(138) = 2.30, p =.023). Thus, the more interdependent the participants indicated they were, the greater was their indicated usage of the appearance enhancing app. CULTURE & BEAUTY 23 Further, we hypothesized that interdependents’ need to conform to beauty norms will lead to greater salience of ideal normative standards, resulting in a heightened sense of discrepancy between their actual and ideal state of beauty (H2a). We tested this hypothesis using Model 4 of the PROCESS macro for SPSS (Hayes 2012). We entered participants’ interdependence score as the independent variable, their appearance related self-discrepancy as the outcome variable, and conformity as the mediator. Bootstrapping analysis with 5000 iterations revealed that the direct effect of interdependence on perceived self-discrepancy was mediated by conformity (Indirect effect: B = .12, SE = .037, 95% CI = [.057, .20]). The results indicate that greater interdependence was related to higher conforming tendencies leading to greater self-discrepancy. Next, we tested the underlying mechanism for this phenomenon. To test the mediation hypotheses (H2a and H2b), we performed a serial mediation analysis using Model 6 of the PROCESS Macro for SPSS (Hayes 2012). We entered participants’ interdependence score as the independent variable, their usage of appearance enhancing products as the dependent variable, and conformity and appearance related self-discrepancy as the two serial mediators. Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework for this mediation analysis. This bootstrapping analysis with 5000 iterations revealed that the direct effect of interdependence on the attitude towards the usage of image-