Young women who view idealized photos of thin and attractive females on Instagram tend to experience heightened body dissatisfaction afterward. But new research published in Body Image suggests that “reality check” comments can buffer against this effect.
“Looking at Instagram has been associated with negative body image. But a recent trend has been calling out or pointing out the unrealism and unattainability of a lot of the images posted (along with the general positive body image movement),” said study author Marika Tiggemann, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Flinders University.
“So we wanted to see whether viewing these types of comments helped women to not feel bad about themselves when viewing attractive Instagram images.”
For their study, the researchers randomly assigned 192 young women to view 14 Instagram images of thin and attractive women accompanied by no comment, a positive appearance comment, or a positive appearance comment plus a reality check comment. Positive comments included statements such as “you look so beautiful” and “you look so hot here,” while reality check comments included statements such as “remember this is really posed” and “she’s probably sucking in.”
The researchers found that the participants’ level of body dissatisfaction increased following exposure to the image across all three conditions. “Although not the major purpose of the study, the finding that exposure to thin and attractive Instagram images (regardless of comments) led to greater body dissatisfaction is consistent with a growing body of experimental research likewise demonstrating negative effects of viewing idealized Instagram imagery,” the researchers said.
But those who viewed the reality check comments tended to experience a smaller increase in body dissatisfaction compared to the other two groups. “It seems that a reality check comment is able to effectively neutralize a positive appearance comment,” the researchers wrote in their study.
The findings highlight that “many of the images on Instagram are unrealistic (filtered, edited, etc.) and unattainable and that people should remember this when looking at them — more generally look at the images with a critical eye and therefore not compare themselves with them,” Tiggemann told PsyPost.
Surprisingly, the type of comments had no effect on appearance comparison. “Levels of comparison did not differ between conditions, so it appears viewing reality check comments doesn’t make you compare any less. So we are yet to work out exactly what is the mechanism,” Tiggemann explained.
One should also be mindful about their phrasing if they plan on writing their own reality check comment. “We don’t want to be in the position of shaming women,” Tiggemann said.
The study, “The effect of viewing challenging “reality check” Instagram comments on women’s body image“, was authored by Marika Tiggemann and Vasiliki Georgia Velissaris.
(Image by Webster2703 from Pixabay)