#Fitspiration on Instagram: The effects of fitness‐related images on women’s self‐perceived sexual attractiveness

Abstract

The present study looks at how exposure to Instagram #fitspiration images affects self‐rated sexual attractiveness among women. An experimental pre‐test/post‐test control group design was implemented. Four hundred and forty‐two female undergraduate students (mean age of 22.06 ± 2.15 years) were randomly exposed to either fitspiration (N = 233) or travel Instagram images (N = 209). Well known self‐report measures of Instagram use, body satisfaction, and self‐perceived sexual attractiveness were completed. The results showed that viewing fitspiration models on Instagram was more likely to lower self‐perceived sexual attractiveness among women than travel images. This effect was mediated by body satisfaction. The present findings built upon previous research that focuses on the detrimental effects of exposure to appearance‐focused Instagram profile images on body image satisfaction by showing that exposure to Instagram fitspiration might also influence women perceived sexual attractiveness. Negative consequences of social media exposure on women’s sexual well‐being need to be further investigated.

Social media and body image: Recent trends and future directions

“…While the focus on wellbeing appears positive, content analyses of fitspiration posts consistently find that they present mainly idealized and sexualized bodies and promote restrained eating and excessive exercise (e.g., [34,35]). An abundance of recent cross-sectional [36], experimental [37][38][39][40], and experience sampling (ESM) [41] studies have accordingly found that exposure to fitspiration content can increase body dissatisfaction. The few studies that included men suggest similar effects across genders, despite men being less exposed to fitspiration content than women [39,41].…”

Social media use and body image issues among adolescents in a vulnerable Louisiana community

“…Several studies exist that focus solely on the SM platforms of Instagram, Facebook, or the combination; most data reported SM use generally associated with development of BII ( 11 , 22 , 26 , 42 , 61 ). Further, most data expressed outcomes in terms of SM use and BII but fail to individuate the discrete platforms’ effect on BII ( 80 , 87 , 88 ).…”

“…Data from several SM platforms shows that they consistently reinforce these body image ideals and may facilitate poor body image, perception of self, and eating disorders among males and females ( 19 , 20 ). Adolescents, especially females, have reported they received mostly negative insight about their bodies and perceived sexual attractiveness from SM, spurring body and self-dissatisfaction ( 21 , 22 ). Furthermore, screen time on SM has been linked to obesity, perpetuating the unrealistic nature of the beauty standards portrayed on platforms.…”

Hashtag fitspiration: credibility screening and content analysis of Instagram fitness accounts

“…However, a relatively small but growing body of evidence has examined the short-term effects of Instagram fitness content on exercise inspiration, mood, and body image, and suggests that this may not be the case. For example, pre-post between-person experimental studies comparing the effects of viewing different types of imagery (e.g., fitspiration and travel inspiration) have established that, while exposure to fitspiration images inspires fitness, it also results in greater body dissatisfaction and negative mood [ 7 – 9 ] and lower perceived sexual attractiveness [ 10 ]. Longitudinal experimental research showed that daily exposure to fitspiration images for 28 days was associated with higher growth in negative mood and appearance comparison compared to neutral or body-positive images, though some growth in positive mood was also observed [ 11 ].…”