An investigation into whether exposure to Instagram “Fitspiration” related imagery impacts body dissatisfaction and attention to body related words in females

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of exposure to a fitspiration imagery Instagram feed prime compared to a neutral imagery Instagram feed on body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to body related words in a non-clinical population of young adult females; using the Body Shape Questionnaire (Cooper, Taylor, Cooper & Fairburn, 1986) to measure body dissatisfaction before and after exposure, and a dot probe task to measure attention to body related words before and after exposure. A two way ANOVA was carried out on both the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) scores and attentional bias scores. This produced insignificant results apart from finding that the participants who viewed the fitspiration prime had a significantly higher bias to body-related words overall, whereas the control group did not display a bias. Furthermore, a significant interaction between time and group was found in BSQ Scores which was explored further using a post hoc paired sampled T-Test which displayed no significant findings, and an independent T-Test which found that there was a significant difference in scores between the control and experimental group at time 2, which was after exposure to the prime. Although there were some insignificant findings and there were limitations to the methods used in the study, the significant results should not be ignored and it is advised that further research be carried out in regards to the implications of viewing fitspiration imagery and how to prevent this.