TY - JOUR
T1 - Social media is not real
T2 - The effect of 'Instagram vs reality' images on women's social comparison and body image
AU - Tiggemann, Marika
AU - Anderberg, Isabella
PY - 2019/11/16
Y1 - 2019/11/16
N2 - One recent trend on Instagram consists of posting ‘Instagram vs reality’ images containing side-by-side photographs of the same woman, one an idealized depiction and the other a more natural depiction. This study aimed to experimentally investigate the effect of such images on body image. Participants were 305 women aged 18–30 years who were randomly assigned to view one of three sets of Instagram images: ‘Instagram vs reality’ images, the ‘ideal’ side alone or the ‘real’ side alone. As predicted, viewing the ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real images resulted in decreased body dissatisfaction relative to the ideal images. Furthermore, the detrimental effects of appearance comparison were much less marked for the ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real images than for the ideal images. It was concluded that ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real posts have the potential to bolster women’s body satisfaction, but more research is needed to assess their longer-term impact.
AB - One recent trend on Instagram consists of posting ‘Instagram vs reality’ images containing side-by-side photographs of the same woman, one an idealized depiction and the other a more natural depiction. This study aimed to experimentally investigate the effect of such images on body image. Participants were 305 women aged 18–30 years who were randomly assigned to view one of three sets of Instagram images: ‘Instagram vs reality’ images, the ‘ideal’ side alone or the ‘real’ side alone. As predicted, viewing the ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real images resulted in decreased body dissatisfaction relative to the ideal images. Furthermore, the detrimental effects of appearance comparison were much less marked for the ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real images than for the ideal images. It was concluded that ‘Instagram vs reality’ and real posts have the potential to bolster women’s body satisfaction, but more research is needed to assess their longer-term impact.
KW - Appearance comparison
KW - body appreciation
KW - body dissatisfaction
KW - body image
KW - idealized images
KW - Instagram
KW - interventions
KW - social comparison
KW - social media
KW - social networking sites
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075149425&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150101295
U2 - 10.1177/1461444819888720
DO - 10.1177/1461444819888720
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075149425
SN - 1461-4448
VL - 22
SP - 2183
EP - 2199
JO - New Media and Society
JF - New Media and Society
IS - 12
ER -