The differential impact of viewing fitspiration and thinspiration images on men’s body image concerns: An experimental ecological momentary assessment study
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To date, little is known about the impact of fitspiration and thinspiration exposure on men, as previous studies on these social media trends were primarily conducted on women. Male participants (n = 223) completed baseline measures of trait body image, then used a smartphone application to complete up to six state-based assessments daily for seven days. In each assessment, participants were randomly assigned to one of three image conditions (fitspiration, thinspiration, or neutral). Before and after viewing each image, they reported state body fat dissatisfaction, muscularity dissatisfaction, negative mood, and urge to engage in behaviours to reduce body fat and increase muscularity. Multi-level analyses revealed that compared to viewing neutral images, viewing fitspiration images increased men's body dissatisfaction, whereas viewing thinspiration images decreased body dissatisfaction. Viewing either fit- or thinspiration images also led to lower mood and greater urges to increase muscularity, whereas only fitspiration images increased urges to reduce body fat. Men with greater baseline muscularity dissatisfaction and higher appearance comparison were most vulnerable to muscularity dissatisfaction after viewing fitspiration images. Findings suggest the importance of limiting exposure to fitspiration imagery and implementing social media literacy programmes for men and well as women.
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Experimental research consistently finds that exposure to idealized social media images results in increased body dissatisfaction.
“Experimental research consistently finds that exposure to idealized social media images, as well as the creation of self-images, results in increased body dissatisfaction [36,37,38].”
Experimental research consistently finds that the creation of self-images results in increased body dissatisfaction.
“Experimental research consistently finds that exposure to idealized social media images, as well as the creation of self-images, results in increased body dissatisfaction [36,37,38].”
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- Authors
- Yee, Z. W., Griffiths, S., Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., Blake, K., Richardson, B., & Krug, I.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Krug, Isabel
- Venue
- Body Image
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 35
- Pages
- 96-107
- ISSN
- 1740-1445 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3087882271
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 2.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Body Image (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- fitspiration, thinspiration, men's body image, body dissatisfaction, appearance comparison, social media exposure, social media literacy, ecological momentary assessment
- MeSH terms
- Ecological Momentary Assessment, Body Dissatisfaction, Adult, Humans, Male, Men, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Physical Fitness, Thinness
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