Really interesting (and important) idea! How many pictures was each group assigned to view? I’m wondering if your findings are inconsistent with past research because the effect results from the bombardment of images we are usually exposed to on a daily basis as opposed to seeing one or two pictures. Do you think your measure of social media engagement could have been a useful moderating variable to see if maybe this relationship depended on social media use during the pandemic?

This is a very interesting project. Like Dr. Stebbins, I was curious how many different images people saw as part of your study. If they’re only shown a small number, I’m not sure it would have much of an impact above and beyond the daily exposure people already have to unrealistic body ideals.

I was also curious about your measure. The OBCS has 2 subscales: surveillance and shame. You only report a single analysis, however. Did you combine those 2 subscales? They are getting at distinct, albeit related, ideas, so I’d encourage you to analyze the data separately for each. Also, the OBCS is generally seen as a “trait” measure where it’s hard to get short-term movement in responses. There are other more “state”-focused measures of how one feels about one’s body that may have been a better fit for your study. What made you decide to use this particular measure?

Awesome poster and presentations! I am very surprised by your results, I always relate body image back to social media. We are shown so many images through the media all the time, and I often wonder to what extent our intake of media affects us. For a future study, I wonder what would happen if groups where shown different sets of body images (Thinner model vs bigger model, or conventional model vs nonconventional model). Perhaps a comparison study could produce some significant results. Good job!

Hi! I have always found an interest in how social media can change peoples perceptions of body image. This is a study that I found fascinating and important! It is also interesting to see your data as most of your participants were female and much research does pertain to majority females! Thank you for sharing your research.

Like the other commenters, I thought you would get significant results too! I have seen studies that have found significant results when it comes to self esteem for people who regularly use social media, but yours was slightly unique because you compared nature images with images of people. This might be a weird thought, but I wonder if these findings have anything to do with people viewing other’s and thinking to themselves that they deserve to be confident too? There has been a push recently for people to be more accepting of themselves and be skeptical about the photos we see online of people who look perfect.

Hi all! This is such an interesting and important topic. Even though our culture is slowly becoming more body positive, I think that social media has a big impact on how we perceive ourselves. I was surprised to see that there wasn’t a significant effect, because I always associate social media with negative effects on self-esteem. Very well done, thank you for sharing!!

This is such an interesting and relevant presentation! I think along with everyone else here, I thought the results would differ significantly. Social media is always such a big role on self-esteem from my point of view so I’m really surprised at the results. Although the study was mostly females, did you show photos of only female influences? Did the male participants get shown male social media influencers instead or was there a mix?

This is such an interesting and relevant topic especially right now! Like other people have mentioned, I was very surprised by your results as I always think about the impacts social media has on today’s society, especially with self-esteem. You mention under the discussion section that in future studies about exploring/reconciling the differences from past literature and your study. How do you envision on reconciling those differences in a future study?

Also the organization of your poster was great as it was super easy to understand and follow! Awesome job!!

Hi! I think your project topic is really interesting! Body image is such an important thing to talk about these days, especially in terms of how it’s affected by social media. I am surprised you all did not find significant results, especially because most of your participants were female! Like the professors were saying in the comment above, maybe having more pictures would have had a greater impact on the participants. Great job overall!!

This is a great study and I am sorry you did not find significant results. As Dr. Erchull said, the OBCS is more of a trait measure. I wonder if you would have found something different if you used a body satisfaction measure. Perhaps one that focuses on satisfaction with specific body parts. I also wonder how much general exposure to these sorts of influences on Instagram influenced the results. If students are constantly scrolling through Instagram and seeing images like this being exposed to 10 images might not affect them.

Elizabeth, Anne, Katy Rose, & Nicole – This is such an interesting and important topic! I think that “influencer” and social media culture is definitely having important impacts on young adult’s mental health, body image, and self-esteem. Great job on constructing and carrying out this study! Do you think that showing experimental images over a longer period of time (instead of a one-time view) would have yielded more significant results? Also, do you think that showing images of “ideal” bodies that are not necessarily celebrities would have yielded different results? I ask because I think that many people view celebrities as an unobtainable standard anyways and are more subjectable to compare themselves to a peer or acquaintance. I also think that, with this type of study, you could see lots of other impacts of social media apart from body image (like comparing wealth, social status, careers, accomplishments, and more! The possibilities are endless!)

I really appreciate studies like these and thought yours was extremely well done! Personally, navigating social media platforms that are plastered with unattainable body standards is exhausting. I was surprised there wasn’t more of a statistical difference between the two groups!

I have a thought. I think it would have been interesting to give the participants the body consciousness scale before and after they viewed either the nature images or the beauty influencer images. Perhaps you might have seen scores drop between the two body consciousness scales?

Great job!

This is a really surprising and interesting study, and it contrasts so much prior research (as you mention). While this may be a chance occurrence, do you think it may also be a sign of successful empowerment in the community of your primary demographic of young adult females? Your suggestion for further research into why your results are different than previous studies could definitely help us understand how politics or social movements can affect mental health and body image, which is very important for continued empowerment. I think it would also be interesting to do this study with a different demographic, such as predominantly men or older people, in order to gauge how social media now affects them, and what kind of differences there are. It could also be interesting if a study based on yours changed the manipulation to show participants models of their sexual preference, in order to find out how social media can affect body image through the psychological lens of relationships.

Hello! I agree with other commenters that it was surprising that you guys didn’t get significant results. I liked how you made distinctions between the conditions of the independent variable, to compare neutral content with influencer content. How did you choose the influencers included in your photos? I wonder if different “looks” of the influencers could impact body consciousness in the viewer. Thank you for sharing your work!

I thought the results were interesting, considering former studies indicate the contrary. I think the images selected of social media influencers are important in informing the opinion of the participant. In my personal experience, people tend to dissociate celebrities from real people and that could factor into the results. If well-known influencers were used to induce body shame/surveillance, I think it could have the opposite effect by reminding the individual these standards are unrealistic/unobtainable, making them more content with their natural appearance.

This topic is very relevant in today’s world. I found this study fascinating and not what I was going to expect for the outcome.

I think this is a very important topic to talk about and bring up. A lot of people, especially college girls, struggle with body positivity so I think this topic is very relevant. I was shocked that your findings were not significant. Why did your group choose social media influencers? Maybe if you showed pictures of models in swim suits or something that showed their body more. I think that would be interesting to see if your results changed. Overall, great job and I love your poster!

Hello, I thought that this was a really interesting study (very relevant to our daily lives, especially with COVID) and was very surprised at the results. I would have expected the findings to be significant – maybe further research will lead us to more information. I have a question for you all: do you think that the results would have turned out different if the study was geared more towards the general public as well as other college aged students?

Do you think that females/males of a younger age, say 8-12 have significantly been affected as well by images being posted on social media by influencers as well, or would you find them to be too young?