The present experiment examined the extent to which appearance-focused accounts on Instagram (a photo-sharing social-media platform) negatively influence people's moods and anxiety levels. Undergraduates at the University of Florida (N = 81, ages 18-30 years, M = 19.07, SD = 1.56) were randomly assigned to scroll through Instagram accounts with either image-conscious photos (fitness, model, and beauty-blogging accounts) or control photos (food, nature, homedecor accounts). Before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the experimental manipulation, participants completed state-based mood and anxiety measures, and a one-time measure of trait anxiety. Controlling for Time-1 measures, regression results showed that viewing photos from imageconscious accounts related to decreased positive mood and increased negative mood and anxiety at Time 2. Exploratory analyses showed that people with lower trait anxiety were especially susceptible to feeling more state anxiety after viewing image-conscious photos. These findings advance theory by suggesting that state-trait anxiety dynamics are important to understanding how people react to viewing image-conscious Instagram accounts. Further, a social comparison theory of viewing image-conscious photos online should integrate information about people's short-term reactions (states, moods) and long-term predispositions (traits, individual differences). Public Policy Relevance Statement This research examined the effects of viewing images from fitness, model, and beauty-blogging Instagram accounts (vs. control images) on changes in college students' moods and state anxiety. Students viewing image-conscious Instagram accounts (vs. control) reported decreases in positive mood and increases in negative mood and state anxiety, which depended on their trait anxiety. State-trait dynamics play a role in the social comparison of image-conscious photos.
Using traditional methods and cross-classified structural equation models (CC-SEMs), we assessed consensus and accuracy across 1,139 observations made by 8 perceivers of 147 laptops whose owners completed self-reports of the same Big Five traits and facets. Average Big Five consensus correlations were slightly stronger using traditional methods (.32) than using CC-SEMs (.25). Average accuracy correlations were slightly stronger using CC-SEMs (.21) than traditional methods (.18). Using CC-SEMs, all traits except negative emotionality showed adequate consensus, whereas accuracy was significant only for open-mindedness and extraversion; extraversion emerged only after controlling for laptop type and number-of-stickers. Number-of-stickers partially mediated—or served as a cue for—the accuracy effect linking targets’ self-reports of aesthetic sensitivity to perceivers’ ratings of the same open-mindedness facet.
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