“[…] they normalize an unrealistic body ideal, which is problematic as they serve as role models for girls and young women.”
Sullivan (2014)
INTRODUCTION
Instagram is the most popular photo sharing application on the Internet. However, few research is done on the influence of this social network on the young population (Hu, Manikonda, & Kambhampati, 2014). Through this article, Kleemans, which is an assistant professor in the Behavioral Science Institute at Radboud University and her collaborators study the effect of manipulated Instagram photos on adolescent girls’ body image in two ways; a high social comparison tendency or a low social comparison tendency. They conducted an experiment on adolescent girls to show this effect.
SUMMARY
According to Kleemans, Daalmans, Carbaat and Anschütz (2016), previous research has investigated the influence of exposure to idealized bodies in the media (television, advertisements, etc.) on young women’s body image. It has long been known that exposure to manipulated bodies in the media can have a negative influence on young women’s body image. Although these effects have been demonstrated for the media, the authors have attempted to demonstrate a similar effect for social networks.
Instagram is a social network widely used by teenagers to share their photos and videos. Some research has shown that Instagram users often post edited photos of themselves, and this is more common among young girls (Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008; Phily Renfrew Center Foundation, 2014). Thus, through this study, the authors investigated the influence of Instagram manipulated photos on adolescents’ body image.
The authors’ first hypothesis is that exposure to manipulated Instagram photos leads to lower body satisfaction in adolescent girls than exposure to original photos. The second hypothesis is that the negative effect of exposure to manipulated Instagram photos compared to original Instagram photos on body satisfaction is stronger for girls with higher social comparison tendency.
In order to test their hypotheses, the authors conducted an online between-subject experiment on 144 teenage girls between the ages of 14 and 18 years old. First, the teenage girls were randomly exposed to 10 original instagram photos or 10 manipulated photos of a teenage girl. Then, they completed an online questionnaire to measure girls’ evaluation and affect about their physical appearance, The Body Image State Scale (Cash, Fleming, Alindogan, Steadman, & Whitehead, 2002). Next, the adolescent girls completed a questionnaire to measure girls’ social comparison tendency. This is the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999) in 11 items. Finally, the authors included the level of education as a control variable because they found a correlation showing that adolescents with a higher level of education generally had a more positive body image.
To exploit their results, the authors made a one-way analysis of covariance. Body image was the dependent variable, Instagram photo manipulation and tendency to make social comparisons was between-subjects factors, and level of education was covariate. Finally, the results showed that the first hypothesis was supported. Indeed, girls who were exposed to edited photos had lower body satisfaction than those exposed to original photos. For the second hypothesis, the authors found that girls who have a higher tendency to compare themselves with others have a lower body image. So the negative effect of manipulated Instagram photos on body image exposure are stronger for girls with a higher social comparison tendency. Finally, concerning the level of education, the authors found that a higher the level of education correlates with a more positive body image.
CRITICAL EVALUATION
Through this article, Kleemans et al. (2016) build on previous theories to support their hypotheses and present results that enrich the scientific contributions concerning Instagram and the effect it can have on the body image of young adolescent girls.
As stated in the introduction to this review, Instagram has received very little academic attention. However, it is a social network that is heavily used by most adolescents. As the authors explain, “The main concern involves the possibility to manipulate Instagram photos by using retouching techniques and, consequently, the potentially negative influence that these ‘perfect pictures’ may have on body image of (young) Instagram users.”. Indeed, this concern has long been at the center of debate with the general public but has not been sufficiently verified.
In this article, the authors have been able to present us real contributions from their study by validating each of their hypotheses through quantitative data. Firstly, based on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2002), the message interpretation process model (Austin & Meili, 1994) and the exemplification theory (Zillmann & Brosius, 2000), the authors highlighted the fact that manipulated Instagram photos have a negative effect on the body image of adolescent women. Secondly, using Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory (1954), the authors showed that this negative effect on the body image was more relevant with adolescents who have a high tendency to social comparison. In fact, adolescents with a low tendency to social comparison did not show a significant effect on their body image following exposure of the manipulated image compared to the original image.
This study highlights a very important point. According to the authors, “Adolescence is a critical period for psychosocial development and earlier research showed that girls in this phase are more vulnerable for media influences because they equate their own bodies with media images (e.g., Borzekowski et al., 2000)”. As a future psychologist, it is therefore important to make young girls aware of the risks they run when comparing themselves to the bodies they see on platforms such as Instagram because the majority of photos are retouched.
In a clear and effective style, the authors were able to highlight one of the harmful effects of the content shared on Instagram on young adolescent girls. Nevertheless, they point out various limitations to their study. Indeed, in order to generalize this effect, it would be interesting to extend this study over the long term. Moreover, while the authors have hidden the real objective of the study, it is possible that some participants may have guessed it. Therefore, the results are probably not totally reliable. Finally, the authors reveal that it would have been more interesting to assess the effect on the body image of the adolescent girls by showing them manipulated photos of people they know because they would have had a higher tendency to compare themselves.
Finally, this study is very interesting, but it is not generalizable to the entire population and requires more investment in psychology. Nevertheless, we now know that as a future psychologist, it is important to take into account the body image of adolescent girls and to explore the relationships they have with the contents of social networks (for example in the case of low physical self-esteem).
CONCLUSION
Instagram is a social network used daily by previous generations. As future psychologists, this article has opened our eyes to the importance of taking into account the effects of social networks on adolescent girls’ body image. The authors also allowed us to question the definition of “reality” as it is seen through social networks. This article is very interesting and needs to be more investigated in the general population (men and women) and in the field of developmental psychology in order to be as close as possible to adolescents and their interests.
Nevertheless as Instagram users, we can say that although it seems to have negative effects on the body image of some adolescent girls, it is also a social network that allows some of them to increase their self-esteem by sharing the content they want and by being visible to their peers. Moreover, some influencers such as Shera Kerienski or Stephanie Lange take inspiration from these harmful effects and try to educate the younger generations on the manipulation of images on Instagram in order to be more confident, to keep them away from the #bodygoal trend and to show them how some contents on Instagram are far from “reality”.
Source : Kleemans, M., Daalmans, S., Carbaat, I., & Anschütz, D. (2016). Picture Perfect : The direct effect of manipulated instagram photos on body image in adolescent girls. Media Psychology, 21(1), 93‑110. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2016.1257392
WORDS WE HAVE LEARNED
- Body image = L’image corporelle.
- Retouching techniques = Techniques de retouche.
- Randomly = Au hasard.
- Quantitative data = Données quantitatives.
- A between-subject experiment= Une expérience inter-sujets.
- A trend = Une tendance.