Researchers from the University of Würzburg discovered that body-positive social media content can diversify women’s ideas of the ideal body and increase their self-confidence. Research published Journal of Experimental Psychology.
In the first experiment, 191 participants were shown five Instagram posts classified as body-positive content (owned by Meta, deemed extremist and banned in Russia), and 266 women were shown five Instagram posts classified as Fitspiration. This move encourages being active and taking care of yourself, but often puts an emphasis on low weights.
After viewing the posts, participants were asked to select all body types they considered ideal. Respondents viewing posts with body positivity chose larger sizes as ideal. Additionally, they chose nearly three body shapes on average to describe the ideal. At the same time, the participants who watched the fitness posts chose only two body types.
The data also showed that body-positive photos improved participants’ attitudes towards their bodies. The results mean that an increase in the number of body shapes considered ideal has a positive effect on body self-esteem and ideas about the ideal may be affected.
An additional task involved estimating the weight of the 36 individuals shown in the full-length photographs. On average, subjects viewing body positivity content rated strangers’ weight significantly lower than those viewing fitness posts. This means that weight perceptions are indeed influenced by prior exposure to various types of social media content.
“By shifting the intrinsic standards of beauty towards diversity, it is possible to remove the unjustified prejudices based on appearance that still exist in many areas of social life,” the scientists wrote.
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