Muscles and bare chests on Instagram: The effect of Influencers' fashion and fitspiration images on men's body image.

Despite men using social media in increasing numbers, as yet there has been little research addressing effects on men's body image. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of exposure to idealized male Instagram images on men's body satisfaction. Participants were 300 men aged 18-30 years who were randomly assigned to view clothed (fashion) images, bare-chested (fitspiration) images, or control images of scenery, posted by the same male Instagram Influencers. It was found that exposure to bare-chested and muscular images resulted in significantly lower body satisfaction relative to viewing clothed fashion images or scenery images, which did not differ from each other. The clothed and bare-chested conditions did not differ in amount of appearance-based social comparison, nor in reported inspiration to exercise or eat healthily. Nor was there any moderation of effects by muscular-ideal internalization. It was concluded that although they are vulnerable to some types of social media imagery, results typically obtained for women cannot simply be generalized to men.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes