There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Fitspiration is an online trend designed to inspire viewers towards a healthier lifestyle
by promoting exercise and healthy food. The present study aimed to experimentally
investigate the impact of fitspiration images on women's body image. Participants
were 130 female undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to view either a
set of Instagram fitspiration images or a control set of travel images presented on
an iPad. Results showed that acute exposure to fitspiration images led to increased
negative mood and body dissatisfaction and decreased state appearance self-esteem
relative to travel images. Importantly, regression analyses showed that the effects
of image type were mediated by state appearance comparison. Thus it was concluded
that fitspiration can have negative unintended consequences for body image. The results
offer support to general sociocultural models of media effects on body image, and
extend these to "new" media.