The effect of #enhancement-free Instagram images and hashtags on women’s body image
Contenu
Titre
The effect of #enhancement-free Instagram images and hashtags on women’s body image
Body Image
Créateur
Marika Tiggemann
Ksenia Zinoviev
Sujet
Body image
Body positive
Digital alteration
Instagram
Selfie
Social media
Résumé
Instagram is a popular social networking site where users can post and share photos. One increasing trend on the site is the posting of natural and unaltered images. The present study aimed to experimentally investigate the effect of enhancement-free (i.e., no makeup, no digital alteration) Instagram images and their accompanying hashtags on women’s body image. Participants were 204 female undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to view one of three sets of Instagram images: standard (i.e., idealised) images, enhancement-free images, or the same set of enhancement-free images with hashtags indicating their enhancement-free nature. As predicted, exposure to enhancement-free images resulted in significantly lower facial dissatisfaction than exposure to the standard images. However, the addition of hashtags resulted in significantly greater facial dissatisfaction than the same enhancement-free images with no hashtags. There were no significant effects for body dissatisfaction. Effects on facial dissatisfaction were moderated by self-photo manipulation, whereby the difference between standard and enhancement-free images was greater for women who digitally manipulate their own photos. Overall, the findings suggest that, under some conditions, enhancement-free images have the potential to protect Instagram users against appearance concerns.
volume
31
pages
131-138
Date
December 1, 2019
Titre abrégé
Body Image
Langue
en
doi
10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.09.004
issn
1740-1445