Reference: Rutter, H., Campoverde, C., Hoang, T., Goldberg, S. F., & Berenson, K. R. (2024). Self-compassion and women's experience of social media content portraying body positivity and appearance ideals. Psychology of Popular Media, 13(1), 12–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000453 Instagram is a social media application where people post pictures and videos to share with others. Researchers wanted to examine the effects of Instagram posts—exhibiting healthy bodies or ideal appearances—on the mental state of young women and how their self-compassion might play a role. The researchers recruited 250 female online Amazon’s MTurk workers ages 19-30 across two studies, collecting data on participants' moods before and after exposure for 16 seconds each of 15 different Instagram posts and measuring their self-compassion. Study 1 women saw one of four types of body images: fit inspiration bodies, positive bodies, body-positive quotations, or landscapes. In Study 2 women saw faces: with make-up or without, or landscapes. Results? Both studies revealed that images promoting appearance ideals negatively impacted women's mental well-being, specifically mood, body satisfaction, and self-worth. However, posts aligned with the body positivity movement showed significantly better outcomes, causing higher self-compassion and positive thoughts. Additionally, those with high self-compassion handled it better, experiencing fewer adverse effects from appearance-ideal content. Lesson? Comparison is the thief of joy! Be compassionate with yourself! Do not let unrealistic standards on social media harm your self-worth!

Written by Jarret Bain B.S.