The effect of influencer body size in #bodypositivity Instagram posts on women’s body satisfaction

Abstract

Since exposure to idealized beauty images can have detrimental effects on women’s body satisfaction, social media influencers started to embrace the #bodypositivity. Body positivity posts show women of all sizes. This experimental study used a 2 (body size: regular weight vs. overweight) x 2 (age: 18-25 years old vs. 35-42 years old) between subjects design to determine the effect of exposure to different types of social media influencers’ body sizes on body satisfaction in women. In total, 250 women (Mage = 29.35, SDage = 8.39) participated in this study. The results show that exposure to social media influencers who are overweight leads to increased body satisfaction compared to exposure to social media influencers with a regular weight. These effects were stronger for women aged 35-42 years old than for women aged 18-25 years old. These findings provide new insights into the applicability of #bodypositivity social media posts.