The Association Between Social Media Use and Body Dissatisfaction: Exploring a Potential Mechanism of Action in an Experimental Design

The use of social networking sites (SNS) is associated with body dissatisfaction in both correlational and experimental studies. However, the specific mechanisms through which SNS use increases the risk for body dissatisfaction are unclear. The purpose of this study was to experimentally test a hypothesis regarding a potential mechanism through which SNS use may increase body dissatisfaction, a risk factor for eating disorders (EDs). The research team created a SNS for deception purposes for this study. Participants completed baseline measures of body dissatisfaction and negative affect and were asked to post a picture of themselves and write a personal narrative on the SNS page. Participants were randomized to one of four conditions: photo and narrative received high frequency "likes," photo and narrative received low frequency "likes," photo received high frequency "likes" but narrative did not, and narrative received high frequency "likes" but photo did not. All "likes" were actually induced by the research team, but a cover story was used for participants. Participants checked the page 2 days later to see how many "likes" their photo and narrative received and completed measures again. Note: This data was collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was not a significant main effect of condition on negative affect nor body dissatisfaction. However, participants reported decreased body dissatisfaction over time regardless of condition. There were no significant changes in negative affect over time, despite the fact that body dissatisfaction decreased. Results of this experimental study contradict previous findings related to appearance-related content on social media.