(71) Effects of Instagram on Body Dissatisfaction in a College Setting

     Social media is a platform for connecting with others on a global scale. Increased use and access to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat have posed new and growing question... [ view full abstract ]

     Social media is a platform for connecting with others on a global scale. Increased use and access to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat have posed new and growing question regarding their effect on social interactions- specifically the view of “self” in comparison to others.  Attribution theory (Fiske, & Taylor, 1991) proposes that individuals use information to formulate a judgments of what happened that allow them to arrive at causal explanations for events. Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954) states that individual’s base personal worth by making comparisons with others in a social setting. Based on these theories we hypothesized that exposure to idealized body images would result in participants reporting lower body image than those in the other conditions with less idealized body images. Furthermore, we wanted to test for gender differences as prior research in this area has had a strong tendency to focus specifically on females (Tiggeman & Zicarrdo, 2015). Participants (n = 189) from a rural, small, liberal-arts ranged in age from 18-24 years. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (i.e., nature photos, interpersonal photos, idealized body photos) that exposed participants to a stimulated Instagram platform. Before seeing the photos, participants reported on their Instagram use. After the photos were viewed, participants completed the Body Weight, Image, and Self-Esteem Evaluation (Awad, 2004) to evaluate their body image. Preliminary analyses revealed a marginal trend towards significance between body image and gender (p = 0.06). Further, self-reported use of Instagram for creativity and documentation (p < 0.001, r= 0.21 and p = 0.017, r = -0.34, respectively) purposes was associated with body image. We plan to further analyses to examine how time spent viewing photos in each condition predicted self-reported body image.  This research sheds light on the way that viewing photos on an Instagram like platform is related to body image in college students. This study expands our understanding of how photo based social media might impact student well-being.