Social media, body image, and the question of causation: Meta-analyses of experimental and longitudinal evidence

This article presents four meta-analyses that can inform causality in the relationship between social media and body image; 24 experimental samples comparing the effect of appearance-ideal social media images to non-appearance-related conditions (n = 3816); 21 experimental samples examining the effe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Body image 2021-12, Vol.39, p.276-292
Main Authors: de Valle, Madelaine K., Gallego-García, María, Williamson, Paul, Wade, Tracey D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appearance ideals
Body image
Body Image - psychology
Fitspiration
Humans
Meta-analysis
Social Media
Social networking site
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Summary:This article presents four meta-analyses that can inform causality in the relationship between social media and body image; 24 experimental samples comparing the effect of appearance-ideal social media images to non-appearance-related conditions (n = 3816); 21 experimental samples examining the effect of contextual features (e.g., comments and captions) accompanying appearance-ideal social media images (n = 3482); 14 experimental samples investigating the effect of appearance-ideal images versus other appearance images on social media (n = 2641); and 10 longitudinal samples on social media use and body image (n = 5177). Social media appearance-ideal images had a moderate negative effect on body image (Hedges’ g = −0.61, p 
ISSN:1740-1445
1873-6807
DOI:10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.10.001