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possibility of having cosmetic surgery, 7 participants responded strongly agree, 8 responded agree, 18 responded neither agree nor disagree, 14 responded disagree and 4 responded strongly disagree. The majority of 30 participants are unsure about their future possibility of having plastic surgery. When asked if they have thought about having cosmetic surgery, 14 percent of participants said strongly agree, 24 percent said agree, 2 percent said neither agree nor disagree, 22 percent said disagree and 38 percent said strongly disagree. Over 50 percent of participants have not thought about having cosmetic surgery, but around 40 percent have. This suggests that individuals of a younger age are considering having cosmetic surgery; it is not a practice limited to a different age group. Response distribution for “I would never have any kind of plastic surgery” is in Figure 3. The majority of participants in this study disagreed or strongly disagreed about never having plastic surgery. The clarification made before the interview explaining the differences between reconstructive and plastic surgery could have affected the responses to this question. Several participants commented that plastic surgery included reconstructive surgery before answering this question and remarked that they could not know if they would need reconstructive surgery in the future. Those responses suggest that this question could be heavily influenced by future possibilities of experiencing disease and trauma. 31 I used chi-square tests to examine differences between women’s and men’s responses to questions regarding social understanding, social acceptability, financial considerations, risk associated with reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, eagerness or reluctance in talking to others about having cosmetic surgery, social desirability, parental attitudes, media influence towards friends’ attitudes, consideration about having cosmetic or plastic surgery. The relationship between gender and social acceptability of friends getting plastic surgery was significantly significant (p=0.02) and can be attributed to younger individuals thinking plastic surgery is acceptable for individuals of their generation. Understanding of friends’ reasoning and desires for getting plastic surgery could also contribute to the relatedness of these variables. Several chi square values calculated regarding consideration of having plastic surgery and gender had statistically significant relatedness. Frequency with which one talks to others about their plans for having plastic surgery (p=0.007), consideration of having plastic surgery in the future (p=0.003) and never having plastic surgery (p=0.012) were significantly related to gender 0% 50% Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know Percentage Reponse categories Figure 3: I would never have any kind of plastic surgery 32 and possibly reveal how often each gender talks about and thinks about having plastic surgery. Women feel more pressure from society to maintain body ideals and are more likely to pursue plastic surgery in the future (Wegenstein 2012). Although the results of this tests do not show the nature of the relationship, more research could be done to see if consideration about getting plastic surgery differs between genders. The relationship between gender and exposure to plastic surgery reality television programs was analyzed first using the cross-tabulation and chi-square tests in SPSS. Cross tabulations are used to compare the relationship between two variables. Results of cross tabulation between gender and familiarity or exposure to plastic surgery reality television programs are shown in Table 7. The chi square test determined that there was a statistically significant p value (p=0.01) and that one gender is more likely to be familiar, or have greater exposure to plastic surgery reality television programs than the other. This information supports the findings of the study done in The Cosmetic Gaze that found that women are more likely to watch plastic surgery reality television programs than men. A Cramer’s V test was also used to determine the strength of the relationship between gender and exposure. The value calculated was 0.637 which reveals a strong relationship between the two variables. 33 The results from the cross tabulation done relating gender and exposure were expected. College-aged women have higher levels of exposure to plastic surgery reality television programs that college-aged men do (Table 3). This suggests that once collegeaged women see commercials or advertisements for and watch this television programs, they continue to do so. Familiarity with programs identifies continuous and repeated exposure that could have a desensitizing effect regarding plastic surgery as a practice and create desires of getting plastic surgery in college-aged women. Thirty-six percent, the largest response group, of men said that they had heard of plastic surgery reality television shows but have never watched them. This suggests that men have had opportunities to watch these programs and become exposed to this content, but have chosen not to. Table 4: Gender and Exposure to Plastic Surgery Reality Television Cross Tabulation How familiar are you with plastic surgery reality television shows? Total Not familiar, never heard of them Not very familiar, may have
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