Am I Ugly or Sick? The Influence of social media on Body Dysmorphic Disorder: China and the West

Abstract

Social media nowadays has cast very serious influences on people, causing appearance anxiety, or even body dysmorphia among all age groups. In order to examine social medias influence on body dysmorphic disorder, we have selected 19 papers related to this subject from the year 2017 to 2021, and completed this review study. Results show that theres a definite positive correlation between social media and body dysmorphia, which can be further explained by costly-signaling theory, the most frequently-appeared theory among studies we reviewed; and patients with body dysmorphic disorder were suggested to use a combination of talk therapy and medication to reduce symptoms.