Viewing body-positive social media content, especially images, led to improved body image outcomes compared to fitspiration content, according to a study published in Sex Roles.
Body image—our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors concerning our appearance—develops in a sociocultural context. Research highlights how gendered beauty standards disproportionately affect women, emphasizing thinness and linking appearance to worth. Social media plays a significant role, with platforms like Instagram promoting both “fitspiration” (fitness inspiration) content and body-positive messaging.
Rachel F. Rodgers and colleagues examined the relative impact of body-positive versus fitspiration content on body image in both men and women, addressing the gap in research regarding men’s experiences with body-positive messaging.
The researchers recruited 509 women and 489 men aged 18-25, who were fluent in English, regular users of social media, and had corrected vision. Before the experiment, participants completed baseline measures of state appearance satisfaction and body appreciation, which assessed how they felt about their bodies in the moment. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions, each representing a distinct type of social media content: body-positive images, body-positive quotes, fitspiration images, fitspiration quotes, or travel images as a neutral control.
The content for women and men was curated to align with their respective beauty standards, such as thin and toned bodies for women and hypermuscular physiques for men. Images and quotes were sourced from Instagram using hashtags relevant to each condition. Each participant viewed 10 posts that matched their assigned condition.
To engage participants with the content, the researchers asked them to answer questions about whether they found the posts relatable or appealing, whether they would typically encounter similar content on social media, and whether they would like such posts. After exposure to the content, participants completed post-exposure measures of state appearance satisfaction, body appreciation, and additional variables, such as appearance comparisons and aspirations. To account for differences in body size, the study controlled for participants’ body mass index (BMI) during data analysis.
Manipulation checks verified that fitspiration content was perceived as promoting fitness and muscularity, while body-positive content was seen as encouraging diverse beauty ideals.
Rodgers and colleagues found that exposure to body-positive content had a more beneficial impact on body image than fitspiration content, with the effects varying across genders and content formats. Among both women and men, viewing fitspiration images led to decreases in state appearance satisfaction and body appreciation compared to body-positive images, body-positive quotes, and travel images.
The negative effects of fitspiration content were consistent regardless of whether it was presented as images or text. On the other hand, body-positive content, especially images, consistently improved body image outcomes, with men experiencing more pronounced benefits.
For women, body-positive images were associated with higher body appreciation compared to fitspiration images, but differences between body-positive images and quotes were not statistically significant. Men, however, showed greater improvements in both appearance satisfaction and body appreciation when exposed to body-positive quotes compared to fitspiration images. Interestingly, men also responded more positively to body-positive images than fitspiration quotes, suggesting a broader benefit of body-positive content for this group.
Although the researchers hypothesized that appearance comparisons would mediate the effects of content exposure, this mechanism was not supported by the data. However, partial support emerged for appearance aspirations, particularly in the body-positive conditions, where participants reported feeling inspired to embrace their appearance.
The findings emphasize the importance of fostering inclusive and empowering social media environments, especially for younger audiences navigating appearance-related pressures.
The study’s reliance on short exposure times and limited diversity in stimuli may have reduced the generalizability of findings.
The study, “Do Images Speak Louder Than Words? Effects of Body Positive and Fitspiration Quotes and Images on State Body Image in Women and Men,” was authored by Rachel F. Rodgers, Susan J. Paxton, and Eleanor H. Wertheim.
