'I wish my body looked like theirs!': How positive appearance comments on social media impact adolescents' body dissatisfactionAuthor links open overlay panelNikol Kvardova ¹, Hana Machackova, Hayriye GulecShow moreAdd to MendeleyShareCitehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101630Get rights and contentAbstract

Despite robust research evidence for the role of attractive-body portrayals in body image, the effect of positive appearance comments that endorse them on social media remains unclear. Therefore, using a between-subject experimental design and the data from 613 Czech adolescents (52% girls) aged 13-18 (M = 15.5, SD = 1.7), the present study examined exposure to positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction, and the moderating roles of media-ideal internalization, appearance schematicity, body appreciation, and gender. Our data supported the presumed intensifying effect of the positive appearance comments on post-exposure body dissatisfaction, but only for adolescent girls. The impact of positive comments was not moderated by the media-ideal internalization, appearance schematicity, or body appreciation. However, the exploratory results showed that the displayed bodies' perceived attractiveness intensified the positive comments' effect on body dissatisfaction, which makes it a potentially important factor to target for the prevention of negative social media effects on body image. Furthermore, the individual characteristics that moderated the exposure to attractive images in the prior research may not determine the effects of the positive comments. Future research may need to capture factors that specifically influence the processing of such comments, such as susceptibility to peer feedback on physical appearance.

Introduction

"Great body!", "You look amazing!", "You're so thin!" Comments like these that praise good-looking bodies are integral parts of social media images (Tiggemann & Barbato, 2018). Following the Tripartite Influence Model of Body Image (Thompson et al., 1999), social media pose a threat to body image by showing the imagery of highly attractive people, tips on achieving the "ideal" body, "before and after" photos, and other appearance-focused content (Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019). Adolescents are especially at risk, since their bodily changes, increased susceptibility to peer norms and social feedback, and heightened self-consciousness create the "perfect storm" for body image concerns (Choukas-Bradley et al., 2022). Therefore, it is not surprising that social media use has been linked to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating outcomes in adolescents (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016).

Although the overall social media effect on body image seems to be well-explored (e.g., Holland & Tiggemann, 2016; Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019), the research has neglected the role of exposure to the positive appearance comments on social media. Due to the extensive social media use during adolescence (Pew Research Center, 2022), and the proliferation of appearance-focused social media (e.g., Vandenbosch et al., 2022), adolescents are presumably quite often exposed to positive appearance comments. Such comments positively appraise idealized pictures on social media that have, on their own, been shown to exacerbate body image concerns (e.g., Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019), by which they further reinforce hardly reachable body "ideals". At the same time, positive appearance comments are pervasive, given that they have unlimited space on social media and can be viewed repeatedly and further endorsed by "likes" (Vendemia & DeAndrea, 2021). Most importantly, since peer attitudes on appearance are highly influential to adolescents' body image (e.g., Veldhuis et al., 2014), when coming from peers, positive appearance comments could reinforce the importance of attractiveness, guide adolescents towards unrealistic body "ideals", and, as a result, increase their body dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, the available research on the effect of social media comments that reinforce appearance "ideals" on body dissatisfaction is scarce and inconclusive. Furthermore, it is practically non-existent for boys and men, which presents a significant gap in the understanding of social media effects on body image.

Adolescent girls and boys are typically targeted by different appearance "ideals", girls by thinness, boys by muscularity (Flament et al., 2012). Furthermore, girls and boys differ in their appearance social media use; specifically, girls engage more intensely and seriously in appearance comments (Paddock & Bell, 2021). This calls for the exploration of the effect of positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction in boys and looking for possible gender differences. Moreover, the media do not influence everyone's well-being to the same extent. Rather, individual, social, and cultural factors moderate the media's impact (Smahel et al., 2022), which also extends to social media effects on body image (e.g., Karazsia et al., 2013; Veldhuis et al., 2014). Therefore, an investigation of the individual moderating factors is highly warranted to elucidate how exposure to positive appearance comments directed at others on social media influence body dissatisfaction, and to identify the adolescents most at risk.

To fill these gaps, the present study used an experimental between-subjects design and examined if the exposure to positive appearance comments that promote the "ideal" photos on social media reinforces the adverse short-term effect of such photos on body dissatisfaction. We were specifically interested in the effect of exposure to the positive appearance comments directed at others' photos on body dissatisfaction. To provide deeper insight, we explored whether the effect of these positive appearance comments depends on the media-ideal internalization, appearance schematicity, body appreciation, gender, and perceived attractiveness of the displayed images. By studying the endorsement of thinness for girls and muscularity for boys, and by focusing on gender differences, we also addressed the issue of the lack of evidence related to the positive appearance comments and male body dissatisfaction.

As a subcomponent of body image, body dissatisfaction is defined by negative attitudes towards the body that result from a perceived discrepancy between actual and ideal body-appearances (Thompson & van den Berg, 2002). Body dissatisfaction is closely connected with psychological distress and it is a significant risk factor for eating disturbances (Bucchianeri and Neumark-Sztainer, 2014, Duchesne et al., 2017). Following the Tripartite Influence Model (Thompson et al., 1999), body dissatisfaction is influenced by three primary sources: parents, peers, and the media. This study centered on comments from peers on social media, and thus focused on the assumed impact of the media and peers. The media routinely display images of "ideal", highly attractive, bodies, and therefore increase body dissatisfaction (Huang et al., 2021). On social media, images of hardly reachable thin (typically for girls), muscular (typically for boys), and overall beautiful bodies, are often selectively posted, or even digitally modified (Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019). These images are often commented on by peers, who play a significant role in adolescents' body image development (Thompson et al., 1999). The need for peer acceptance is typical in adolescence, which also extends to the domain of physical appearance (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). In offline settings, adolescents usually strive to attain appearance standards shared by their peers, which, consistent with mainstream societal ideals, are often unattainably thin or muscular (Markey, 2010). In both offline and online settings, adolescents frequently observe and participate in peer discussions about the "ideal" appearance and they are pressured to meet those standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). These appearance-related experiences in the media and peer context trigger the internalization of the unreachable appearance standards and appearance comparisons, and may result in body dissatisfaction (Thompson et al., 1999).

The roles of media and peers in body image intertwine in current social media. The idealized images on social media are primarily user-generated and come from similar and relatable peers (Rodgers et al., 2021). Moreover, social media facilitate appearance-related interactions; appearance-centered content, such as images of "ideal" bodies, invites users to evaluate them with emojis (e.g., "likes") and comments. Given that, on social media, positive feedback prevails over negative feedback (Rideout & Fox, 2018), adolescents, who use social media extensively (Pew Research Center, 2022), are likely regularly exposed to positive appearance comments that praise idealized bodies. Consistent with the Tripartite Influence Model (Thompson et al., 1999), the positive appearance comments that reinforce appearance ideals could be particularly influential for adolescents when they come from peers. Just as in offline interactions, peer comments on social media promote appearance ideals and propagate them as desired standards (Veldhuis et al., 2014). These messages are salient if they come from either the commenters who belong to the peer group of adolescents in the offline world (Rodgers & Melioli, 2016) or from similar-aged and relevant people on the internet. Therefore, similar to the effects of idealized social media images on body image concerns (e.g., Holland & Tiggemann, 2016), positive appearance comments, which are about idealized bodies, propagate attractive appearance standards and may reinforce body dissatisfaction in those who view them on social media.

Thus far, only a few studies focused on the role of appearance-related comments on social media in body dissatisfaction. Two perspectives have been taken to target this issue: the first approach focused on the impact of receiving comments on one's own physical appearance, and the second approach studied the effect of viewing appearance comments directed at others on social media. The current study follows the latter. There is evidence to indicate that appearance-related comments on social media aimed at others, seem to play a role in the body image of the viewers. For example, exposure to others' comments about the displayed person's body weight (e.g., pointing out that the girl is thin, extremely thin, or a normal-weight) significantly increased body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls (Veldhuis et al., 2014), while viewing comments that discouraged appearance-related posting (e.g., "I'd rather put that sweat, time, devotion into something meaningful other than the appearance!") was associated with improvements in body satisfaction in young adult women (Kim, 2021). Similarly, the "reality check" comments (e.g., "Remember this is really posed") reduced body dissatisfaction among adolescents who saw them on social media (Tiggemann & Velissaris, 2020). Besides the comments, the role of "likes" on social media has also been of interest, yet recent research did not support that the number of "likes" on the viewed images should affect body satisfaction (Lowe-Calverley and Grieve, 2021, Tiggemann et al., 2018).

In exploring the effect of positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction, our study follows the line of the appearance comments directed at others on social media. Yet, it is also worth it to elaborate briefly on the receipt of positive appearance commentary. Despite the positive valence of the positive appearance comments and the fact that they may, for some in the offline settings, enhance body satisfaction (e.g., Carriere & Kluck, 2014), receiving such comments still conveys the importance of attractiveness (Slater & Tiggemann, 2015) and contributes to negative body image (Calogero et al., 2009). Accordingly, on social media, receiving positive appearance comments increased self-objectification (Vendemia & DeAndrea, 2021), appearance-related social media consciousness, and, weakly, body surveillance (Burnel et al., 2021). Similarly, positive appearance comments directed at others on social media are presumed to reinforce body dissatisfaction; however, this effect remains rather understudied. The existing evidence is neither substantial nor conclusive: using an experimental design, Tiggemann and Barbato (2018) found that positive appearance comments that endorsed idealized bodies in the Instagram posts increased young women's post-exposure body dissatisfaction. Similarly, Couture Bue and Harrison (2020) found that visual attention to "high-anxiety" body areas (e.g., waist, thighs) in a thin-ideal photo increased post-exposure body anxiety (i.e., feeling anxious, nervous, or tense about specific body areas, such as thighs, stomach, or buttocks) in the idealized-comments condition. However, this result appeared compared to the disclaimer and not the neutral condition. By contrast, other studies did not support the impact of the positive comments on body image (Kim, 2021; Tiggemann & Velissaris, 2020; Politte-Corn & Fardouly, 2020). Some of the null results may have been caused by attaching comments to selfies (i.e., images that captured only facial appearance) that may not be adequate to affect body dissatisfaction (Politte-Corn & Fardouly, 2020) or perhaps by the small sample size and the resultant low statistical power, as the authors claimed (Tiggemann & Velissaris, 2020).

Since the evidence on the positive appearance comments is scarce, and it is non-existent among adolescent boys, the current study examined the following hypothesis:

H₁

Exposure to positive appearance comments attached to body-ideal photos induces more body dissatisfaction than to appearance-neutral comments.

The reason for the inconsistent findings on the impact of the positive appearance comments on body image (e.g., Politte-Corn & Fardouly, 2020; Tiggemann & Velissaris, 2020) may also lie in the insufficient consideration of the individual moderating factors. As the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013) posits, media effects depend on the moderation of individual susceptibility variables. Although social media use has overall been linked to body image concerns (e.g., Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019), the previous research has highlighted that the risk is significantly more pronounced for people who are susceptible to processing and intensively reacting to appearance-focused content. The present study extended this research line to the positive appearance comments' effect on body dissatisfaction. Similar to the overall time spent on social media and specific appearance-related activities (e.g., Myers et al., 2012), the impact of comments that praise attractive ideals on social media on body dissatisfaction may be intensified by individual susceptibilities. This study examined four moderating factors that previously played a significant role in the social media effects on body image but that have not been adequately considered for their impact on the association between positive appearance comments on social media and body dissatisfaction: media-ideal internalization, appearance schematicity, body appreciation, and gender.

Media-ideal internalization involves the inclination to media ideals and the susceptibility to adopt them as personal standards (Karazsia et al., 2013). Although the Tripartite Influence Model (Thompson et al., 1999) posits media-ideal internalization as a mediating process variable to explain socio-cultural influence on body image, compelling evidence suggests that it can also take the form of a permanent tendency to internalize attractive ideals that moderates the media effects (Karazsia et al., 2013). Those with a heightened internalization tendency aspire to achieve the media-endorsed "ideal" body and consider its attainment necessary to feel attractive (Rodgers et al., 2015). Consistent with the mainstream appearance ideals, adolescent girls typically internalize thin bodies, whereas boys strive for slenderness and muscularity (Flament et al., 2012). Because of the inclination to media ideals, thin/muscular internalization either exacerbated the impact of the thin-ideal imagery (Anixiadis et al., 2019) and sexually objectifying images (Krawczyk & Thompson, 2015) on body dissatisfaction or intensified the impact of appearance comparisons to the media ideals of body image disturbances (Myers et al., 2012). The data on the moderating role of media-ideal internalization in the effect of positive appearance comments on social media are lacking. Yet, internalization has been examined in the context of fitspiration on social media in a few studies. The results showed that thin- and fit-internalization did not enhance the effect of fitspiration images on body dissatisfaction (Homan et al., 2012, Pryde and Prichard, 2022, Slater et al., 2017), possibly since the internalization of the fit ideal does not have to be so detrimental to body image, and may even be beneficial, like for healthy exercise motivation (Homan et al., 2012). Nonetheless, since the positive appearance comments promote highly attractive and, for most adolescents, unreachable bodies, adolescents with higher media-ideal internalization may react more intensely to the comments and be more body-dissatisfied afterwards.

H₂

Media-ideal internalization intensifies the effect of exposure to positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction.

The concept of appearance schematicity stems from the Self-schema Theory (Markus, 1977) and reflects the extent to which we pay attention to our physical appearance, deem appearance important, and believe that it has a significant impact on our lives (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2002). As a result, "schematic" individuals are more attentive and react intensely to appearance-related cues. They experience their subsequent body image thoughts and emotions to a greater extent (Cash, 2004). The up-to-now evidence has focused on appearance schematicity as an antecedent of body dissatisfaction (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2002) or as the mediating mechanism between media exposure and body image (Ahadzadeh et al., 2017), or it has examined its link to media perceptions (Sinton & Birch, 2006). Concerning its moderating role, there is not much evidence on body dissatisfaction. Nonetheless, Rousseau et al. (2017), surprisingly, found that the motivational component (e.g., "I often worry about how I look to other people") of appearance schematicity intensified the effect of television viewing on adolescents' media-ideals internalization, whereas its self-evaluative component (e.g., "My ability to feel happy depends upon how I look") mitigated it. The authors speculated that adolescents with high self-evaluative appearance schematicity may have learned to a greater extent that it is better to avoid media ideals because of their unattainability and their negative effects on body image, which would also suggest the protective effect of appearance schematicity on body dissatisfaction. Nonetheless, this explanation is speculative, it has not been further examined, and both theory and research still dominantly support the accentuating role of appearance schematicity in the media effects on body image. Accordingly, in the context of social media research, appearance schematicity intensified the impact of weight-related comments on adolescent girls' objectified body consciousness, though not on body dissatisfaction (Veldhuis et al., 2014). Appearance schematicity has not yet been examined in the effect of positive appearance comments; because of the cognitive inclination to detect appearance cues and the increased importance of the "ideal" appearance and attractiveness (Rousseau et al., 2017), appearance schematicity may intensify the effect of the positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction.

H₃

Appearance schematicity intensifies the effect of exposure to positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction.

Whereas media-ideal internalization and appearance schematicity may intensify the effect of positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction, body appreciation may mitigate it. Body appreciation means gratitude for the body's features, functionality, and health (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015). It goes beyond satisfaction with one's physical appearance and reflects positive attitudes to the body: body acceptance, caring for bodily needs, and rejecting unreachable appearance ideals (Halliwell, 2013). Body appreciation is also defined by so-called protective filtering, which is the acceptance of positive information (e.g., body pride) and the rejection of negative information (e.g., appearance ideals) (Halliwell, 2013). Because of that, body appreciation might mitigate the negative effects of media on body dissatisfaction. For instance, it reduced body dissatisfaction experienced after viewing the thin-ideal ads (Andrew et al., 2015, Halliwell, 2013) and thin-related text (Tobin et al., 2019). Furthermore, body appreciation mitigated the effect of body image comparisons on social media on young adult women's restrained eating (Yao et al., 2021), and the effect of selfie viewing on facial dissatisfaction in adolescent girls and boys (Wang et al., 2019). Therefore, because of the protective filtering and appreciation of the body for health and functionality, body appreciation should also reduce the adverse effect of the comments that propagate idealized bodies on body dissatisfaction.

H₄

Body appreciation mitigates the effect of exposure to positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction.

Girls and boys are targeted by different appearance ideals within our society, typically girls by extreme thinness and boys by leanness and muscularity (Flament et al., 2012). Also, the media pressures related to physical appearance tend to be higher for girls than for boys (Webb et al., 2017). Yet, more and more scholars argue, based on the current evidence (e.g., Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019), for the gender equivalence of the (social) media effects on body image (e.g., Schreurs & Vandenbosch, 2022). For instance, among adolescents, gender did not moderate the longitudinal impact of the social media usage on appearance investment (de Vries et al., 2014) and body dissatisfaction (de Vries et al., 2016). Similarly, Webb et al. (2017) found that the impact of appearance-related media pressure similarly predicted appearance-rejection sensitivity among both adolescent girls and boys. The gender invariance of social media effects on body image has also been supported by recent meta-analyses (Holland and Tiggemann, 2016, Saiphoo and Vahedi, 2019). Even more relevant to the effect of positive appearance comments, de Vries et al. (2016) found no gender differences in the impact of appearance-related feedback from friends though they did not ask specifically for online settings on adolescent body dissatisfaction, which suggests that adolescent girls and boys could react similarly to the comments promoting appearance ideals on social media. Yet, even though gender similarities prevail over the differences in the overall social media effects on body image, girls may still be affected by positive appearance comments, a specific interactive feature of social media, to a greater extent. Given the fact that women report greater appearance pressure from social media than men (e.g., berga et al., 2020), adolescent girls may react more intensely to the comments and experience higher levels of body dissatisfaction. The gender differences in the impact of such comments on social media on body dissatisfaction have not been investigated before, which makes it worth exploring whether adolescent girls and boys are similarly or differently affected.

Idealized and hardly reachable bodies on social media may increase adolescents' body dissatisfaction (e.g., Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019). One way to reinforce appearance ideals on social media is through positive comments; yet, the up-to-now evidence on their effects is not exhaustive and it has yielded contradictory results. Building upon the Tripartite Influence Model (Thompson et al., 1999) and the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013), we aimed to contribute insight into the role of positive appearance comments in body dissatisfaction by accounting for the individual moderating characteristics that may explain previously absent or weak associations. Moreover, to overcome the limitation of selective focus on girls and women in prior research, we focused on the impact of the positive appearance comments among both girls and boys. Utilizing an experimental between-subjects design, the current study aimed to fill prior research gaps by examining the effect of the social media comments that endorse idealized bodies on adolescents' body dissatisfaction and by focusing on the moderating roles of media-ideal internalization, appearance schematicity, body appreciation, and gender. We expected media-ideal internalization and appearance schematicity to intensify the effect of the positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction, and body appreciation to mitigate their impact. We also explored the gender differences. Furthermore, we explored the moderating role of perceived attractiveness of the depicted bodies. In our view, attractiveness plays a critical role in the Tripartite Influence Model (Thompson et al., 1999), because it is a foundation for the adverse media effects on body image. Also, due to its connection to negative body image (e.g., Harrison & Hefner, 2014), we focused on how the perceived attractiveness of the portrayed "ideals" could influence the effect of positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction. Following the evidence on their role in body image (e.g., Holsen et al., 2012; Saiphoo & Vahedi, 2019), we controlled for age, time spent on Instagram, BMI, and depression . Gender was also controlled for, except for when we investigated gender differences in the effect of positive appearance comments on body dissatisfaction, where it appeared as a predictor and moderator.

Section snippetsParticipants

Data from 613 Czech adolescents (52% girls) aged 13-18 (M = 15.5, SD = 1.7) were collected in August 2021 via an online survey by a specialized agency as a part of the project Modeling the future: Understanding the impact of technology on adolescent's well-being (FUTURE). The data were collected as part of a larger survey of 1751 adolescents that consisted of three experimental studies; each adolescent participated in only one study. Age and gender (i.e., girls, boys) were equally distributed.

Descriptive statistics and manipulation checks

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for the key variables, manipulation check variables, and covariates. The experimental and control groups did not differ in the perceived attractiveness of the depicted bodies, t(596)=0.10, p=.921, d =0.01; in the perceived proximity of their bodies to those in the images, t(599)=0.80, p=.417, d =0.07; and in the self-reported attention to the comments, t(609)=0.90, p=.355, d =0.08. A significant difference in the perceived endorsement

Discussion

Positive appearance comments (e.g., "You look amazing!") comprise a crucial part of body ideal imagery on social media, and scholarly attention has been recently turned to their influence on body dissatisfaction (e.g., Couture Bue & Harrison, 2020; Tiggemann & Barbato, 2018). The impact of such comments can be explored from the perspective of the person who receives them and from the perspective of the viewer. The current research centered on adolescents exposed to positive appearance comments

Funding

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation [grant number 19-27828X].

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Nikol Kvardova: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing - original draft. Hana Machackova: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Hayriye Gulec: Supervision, Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

None.

Acknowledgments

Our thanks go to Elika Dufkov who helped us with the preparation of the experimental stimuli and with the questionnaire translation.

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