Social Media Effects on Lifestyle Satisfaction
Condition: Control Group; Social Media
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      From magazines to Miss America, the media has consistently contributed to the spread of
      sociocultural beauty standards for decades. While initial research on the effects of media on
      body image primarily focused on magazine and television, recent research has shifted towards
      exploring the effects of social media due to its rapid and constant accessibility. Current
      research has associated the promulgation of the thin-ideal with bulimia, dieting, supplement
      use, negative affect, and body dissatisfaction. Literature related to thin-ideal media
      (thinspiration), decreased body dissatisfaction, and negative mood is robust with a common
      understanding that thin-ideal media instigates increased appearance comparisons to seemingly
      unattainable beauty standards. Literature has also suggested that depression and anxiety have
      increased with the growth of social media and pressure to achieve unattainable beauty. The
      fit-ideal, often referred to as Fitspiration, was created as an "antidote" to thin-ideal
      beauty standards. However, research has found that though well intended, fitspiration content
      continues to promote the thin-ideal and has been associated with similarly detrimental
      outcomes of body dissatisfaction and negative mood. Over the last decade, body image research
      has shifted the focus on body disturbance to examining concepts related to positive body
      image. However, to date there are no known studies examining the impacts of fit-ideal content
      versus body positive content on women's body appreciation, body satisfaction, and state mood.
      The purpose of the present study is to experimentally examine the impact of exposure to body
      positive and fitspiration Instagram content on the body satisfaction, body appreciation, and
      mood of undergraduate women at Arizona State University. Participants will be 90 female
      undergraduate students (18-29 years old) currently attending Arizona State University.
      Participants will be randomly allocated to view either fitspiration, body-positive, or
      appearance neutral Instagram images. Dependent variables including state body appreciation,
      state body dissatisfaction, and state mood will be measured using Visual Analogue Scales.
      Trait thin-ideal internalization and trait social comparison will also be measured as
      moderators using the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 and the
      Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised. We hypothesize that viewing body positive
      content from Instagram will result in greater state body satisfaction, greater state body
      appreciation, and greater state positive mood compared to participants exposed to
      fitspiration and appearance neutral content. We also hypothesize that viewing fitspiration
      content from Instagram will result in greater state body dissatisfaction, decreased state
      body appreciation, and greater state negative mood compared to participants exposed to body
      positive and appearance neutral content. Short answer qualitative interview questions will
      also be included as an exploratory aim of this study where we intend to fill a gap in the
      literature regarding the specific aspects of each content topic that elicit the observed
      quantitative outcomes.
    


Intervention name(s): Effects of Instagram Exposure on Lifestyle Satisfaction
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants will complete initial measures of sociodemographic information, the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale, The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised, and baseline measures of body appreciation, body satisfaction, and mood using online Visual Analogue Scales via Qualtrics. Female undergraduate students will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The Fitspiration and Body Positive groups will view a series of 15 Fitspiration or Body Positive images sourced from Instagram while the control group will view 15 interior design images sourced from Instagram. After viewing images, participants will complete posttest measures of body satisfaction, body appreciation, and mood using Visual Analogue scales. Thereafter, participants will be provided with four, brief short answer questions regarding their perspective on the images observed.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Other