A recent study published in Sex Roles provides new insights into the relationship between Instagram use and body image among young women. The study finds that intense engagement with Instagram correlates with a heightened endorsement of voluptuous body types, often exemplified by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Scarlett Johansson.
The “thin ideal” is a pervasive standard of beauty that emphasizes slimness as the epitome of female attractiveness. This concept has dominated Western culture for decades, promoted through various media outlets including magazines, television shows, and advertisements. It presents a narrow definition of beauty, often characterized by a low body weight, minimal body fat, and a lean figure.
Unlike the thin ideal, the “voluptuous ideal” promotes a body shape that is curvier and more muscular, yet still falls within a very specific and narrow range of acceptable body proportions. Characterized by fuller breasts, a pronounced waist, and larger buttocks, this ideal is reminiscent of the hourglass figure that has resurfaced as desirable in contemporary culture. Influential celebrities and social media influencers have played a significant role in popularizing this body type.
The authors behind the new study sought to better understand the evolving landscape of societal beauty standards and their impact on women’s body image and self-perception.
“I became interested in the media’s impact on an individual’s body image while in graduate school. That interest has grown exponentially since the birth of and popularity of social media, which presents individuals with a great deal of imagery focused on the body,” said study author K. Megan Hopper, an associate professor in the School of Communication at Illinois State University and co-editor of One Size Does Not Fit All: Undressing the Performance of Bodies in Popular Culture.
“One of my co-authors, Ana Belmonte, was the one who then realized social media – specifically Instagram – was breaking away from the typical idealized thin body shape to instead idealize the curvier, voluptuous body type. An ideal, although different from the very thin body type, still impossible for many to achieve.”
Participants in the study were 189 female students from a large Midwestern university in the United States, reflecting a demographic that is highly engaged with social media. These participants were invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire that probed various aspects of their Instagram use and its impact on their body image perceptions.
To quantify Instagram use, participants reported the average amount of time they spent on the platform daily, in both minutes and hours. The intensity of their Instagram engagement was assessed using a modified version of the Facebook Intensity Scale, adapted to focus on Instagram. This scale included items designed to measure emotional connection to the platform and its integration into daily life.
The researchers also adapted existing scales to measure perceptions of Instagram as a source of appearance ideals. This involved assessing the extent to which participants saw Instagram as providing information about and pressure to conform to certain appearance standards. Participants also completed a measure designed to assess how often they compared their physical appearance to that of others.
Finally, to gauge endorsement of the voluptuous body ideal, the researchers modified the Ideal-Body Stereotype Scale-Revised, altering its focus from thinness to voluptuousness. Participants rated their agreement with statements praising voluptuous body types, using a scale from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.”
Interestingly, the researchers found that the intensity of engagement with Instagram had a more profound impact on body image perceptions than the sheer amount of time spent on the platform. Participants who reported a higher intensity of Instagram use were more likely to perceive Instagram as a significant source of information about appearance ideals and a source of pressure to conform to those ideals.
Viewing Instagram as a source of information about appearance ideals and as a source of pressure to achieve these ideals was linked to increased appearance-related comparisons. This comparison process, in turn, was found to be a significant predictor of endorsing a voluptuous body ideal, highlighting the impact of social media on shaping what individuals consider to be the ideal body type.
“Frequent Instagram use can have an impact on how individuals see their own bodies in comparison to those displayed so often on Instagram,” Hopper told PsyPost. “Indeed, intensive Instagram use is linked to individuals feeling as if the social media site is an important source of information and pressure about appearance, especially informing us that the voluptuous body type is the ideal body to possess.”
This study opens the door to further explorations into how platforms like Instagram influence perceptions of the ideal body type. With the rise in cosmetic procedures aiming to achieve these ideals, it’s imperative to consider the psychological and physical health implications of such societal pressures.
Future research could also investigate the impact of these evolving beauty standards on individuals’ body satisfaction and self-worth, broadening the conversation beyond traditional “thinspiration” to encompass the complex spectrum of body image influences in the digital age.
The researchers plan to “continue to explore the impact of voluptuous body ideals and how that ideal might impact individuals’ perceptions of the worth of their own bodies,” Hopper said.
The study, “Instagram Use and Endorsement of a Voluptuous Body Ideal: A Serial Mediation Model,” was authored by Ana Belmonte, K. Megan Hopper, and Jennifer Stevens Aubrey.