DOI: 10.25377/sussex.9885644
title: Dataset for paper: Body Positivity but not for everyone

description: Data for a Brief Report/Short Communication published in Body Image (2021). Details of the study are included below via the abstract from the manuscript. <br>The dataset includes online experimental data from 167 women who were recruited via social media and institutional participant pools. The experiment was completed in Qualtrics.Women viewed either neutral travel images (control), body positivity posts with an average-sized model (e.g., ~ UK size 14), or body positivity posts with a larger model (e.g., UK size 18+); which images women viewed is show in the ‘condition’ variable in the data.The data includes the age range, height, weight, calculated BMI, and Instagram use of participants. After viewing the images, women responded to the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), a state version of the Body Satisfaction Scale (BSS), and reported their immediate social comparison with the images (SAC items). Women then selected a lunch for themselves from a hypothetical menu; these selections are detailed in the data, as are the total calories calculated from this and the proportion of their picks which were (provided as a percentage, and as a categorical variable [as used in the paper analyses]). Women also reported whether they were on a special diet (e.g., vegan or vegetarian), had food intolerances, when they last ate, and how hungry they were. Women also completed trait measures of Body Appreciation (BAS-2) and social comparison (PACS-R). Women also were asked to comment on what they thought the experiment was about. Items and computed scales are included within the dataset.This item includes the dataset collected for the manuscript (in SPSS and CSV formats), the variable list for the CSV file (for users working with the CSV datafile; the variable list and details are contained within the .sav file for the SPSS version), and the SPSS syntax for our analyses (.sps). Also included are the information and consent form (collected via Qualtrics) and the questions as completed by participants (both in pdf format).Please note that the survey order in the PDF is not the same as in the datafiles; users should utilise the variable list (either in CSV or SPSS formats) to identify the items in the data.The SPSS syntax can be used to replicate the analyses reported in the Results section of the paper. Annotations within the syntax file guide the user through these. A copy of SPSS Statistics is needed to open the .sav and .sps files.<br> <br> Manuscript abstract: Body Positivity (or ‘BoPo’) social media content may be beneficial for women’s mood and body image, but concerns have been raised that it may reduce motivation for healthy behaviours. This study examines differences in women’s mood, body satisfaction, and hypothetical food choices after viewing BoPo posts (featuring average or larger women) or a neutral travel control. Women (N = 167, 81.8% aged 18-29) were randomly assigned in an online experiment to one of three conditions (BoPo-average, BoPo-larger, or Travel/Control) and viewed three Instagram posts for two minutes, before reporting their mood and body satisfaction, and selecting a meal from a hypothetical menu. Women who viewed the BoPo posts featuring average-size women reported more positive mood than the control group; women who viewed posts featuring larger women did not. There were no effects of condition on negative mood or body satisfaction. Women did not make less healthy food choices than the control in either BoPo condition; women who viewed the BoPo images of larger women showed a stronger association between hunger and calories selected. These findings suggest that concerns over BoPo promoting unhealthy behaviours may be misplaced, but further research is needed regarding women’s responses to different body sizes.