Are Skinny and Toned Bodies Necessary to Encourage a Healthy Lifestyle? : the Effects of Body Positive Fitness Imagery on Body Dissatisfaction, Exercise Intention and Healthy Eating Intention, In Comparison to Fitspirat

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Are Skinny and Toned Bodies Necessary to Encourage a Healthy Lifestyle?

The Effects of Body Positive Fitness Imagery on Body Dissatisfaction, Exercise Intention and Healthy Eating Intention, In Comparison to Fitspiration Pictures.

Clara A. Duc 12253359 Master’s Thesis

Graduate School of Communication Entertainment Communication Science

Supervised by Susanne Baumgartner January 2020

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Abstract

In terms of fitness inspiration on social media, fitspiration has been the dominant trend in terms of promoting a healthy lifestyle to users. Yet, it appears that much of the research on fitspiration concludes that the movement has detrimental effects on viewers’ physical and mental health. This study explores a new approach to Instagram fitness content by focusing on images showcasing average-sized bodies in contexts similar to fitspiration content and their influence on women’s body satisfaction and lifestyle behaviour intentions. 108 women participated in an online experiment comparing fitspiration images, body positive fitness imagery (average-sized bodies) and a control set of popular Instagram pictures unrelated to fitness. The results showed that there were no differences between the conditions in terms of levels of body dissatisfaction or healthy eating and exercise intention. Despite insignificant statistical results, the outcomes did go in the hypothesised directions. However, the study did face significant methodological drawbacks, which are likely to have influenced the results. The study adds to the current scarce discussion on the place of average-sized bodies in fitness on Instagram and concludes that further research on this type of figure must be done in order to uncover the most ideal way to encourage female Instagram users to exercise, eat well and feel good in their own bodies.

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The Effects of Body Positive Fitness Imagery on Body Dissatisfaction, Exercise Intention and Healthy Eating Intention, In Comparison to Fitspiration Pictures. The media play an important part in establishing and transmitting social cultural norms regarding health and appearance expectations (Strahan et al., 2006; Harper & Tiggemann, 2007; Franchina & Lo Coco, 2018). For women, portrayals of ideal bodies and beauty appear to be repetitive, especially when it comes to healthy body ideals (Daniels, 2009). Thin yet athletic figures have become the socially accepted standard of a healthy physique and this ideal has largely been popularised by social media, notably through trends such as

fitspiration. The online movement, which consists of the combination of the words ‘fitness’ and ‘inspiration’, appeared as a counter-trend to thinspiration (‘thin’ and ‘inspiration’). Both consist of image-based content, focusing on women’s physique, with the former centralising on athleticism, strength and encouragements to follow a healthy lifestyle and the latter consisting of pictures of extremely skinny women and the promotion of disordered eating (Wick & Harriger, 2018; Griffiths & Stefanovski, 2019). Fitspiration content often consists of images of women in activewear showing their muscles and physique in the best angle and lighting with an accompanying inspirational quote concerning fitness and health goals (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). Fitspiration models usually flaunt similar attributes: a small waist, 6-pack abs, often overdeveloped glutes and lean muscles on an overall slim figure with very low body fat. Due to this, the movement has already been critiqued by both scholars and popular media; studies showing that fitspiration can have negative consequences on women’s self-image and ultimately fails to provide viewers with true motivation to work out and eat better (Robinson et al., 2017).

Thus, it seems that a significant issue women currently face on social media is their

expectations of what being fit and healthy should look like. This concept of a healthy body is distorted, with the average woman not sporting a 6-pack but rather sitting between a size 12

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and 16 (Adegoke, 2019). Recently, the body positivity movement has gained significant momentum, notably due to its aim to celebrate all body types and counter the detrimental effects of the glorification of one specific health and beauty standard. Yet, it appears that this shift gives little attention to the place of fitness and healthy dieting. Additionally, current body positive content appears to favour overweight and obese bodies (Webb et al., 2017), leaving less space for women with average-sized bodies, despite them being, by definition, also part of the movement.

Recent research on average bodies and body positivity has given little to no attention on the potential benefits of body positive fitness imagery specifically (Webb et al., 2017; Mahlo & Tiggeman, 2016). Scholars have underlined the potential health benefits of having a positive body image (Cohen et all., 2019), yet have not determined whether fitness pictures that are body positive make women more satisfied with their bodies as well as more inclined to exercise and eat in a healthy and balanced way. Further research on promotion of all possible types of fitness and health online messages is essential due to the constant increase in obesity rates within Western cultures (World Health Organization, 2018) and the necessity to find and understand new ways of promoting active lifestyles to combat such issue.

The following study will therefore attempt to fill the current lack of attention given to average-sized bodies and will extend the field on online effects of fitness trends, by

comparing fitspiration images to pictures of average-sized and more relatable women. For the sake of this research, content portraying average-sized women in fitness contexts akin to fitspiration content will be referred to as body positive fitness content or imagery. The study will test the effects of average-sized fitness imagery on exercise and healthy eating intention and will center itself on the social network Instagram, as it has been demonstrated that visuals on social media are more likely to influence body concerns than any other type of shared content (Mabe, Forney & Keel, 2014; Tiggeman & Zaccardo, 2018). Furthermore, Instagram

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is the ideal platform for repeated exposure to specific messages, meaning that the medium represents a way to reinforce specific ideals about fitness and health (Mulgrew et al., 2018). The main research question will therefore be:

RQ: What are the effects of body positive fitness imagery on body dissatisfaction, exercise intention and healthy eating intention, in comparison to fitspiration content?

Theoretical Background

Fitspiration

Fitspiration’s aim is to inspire women to become healthy and fit, by exercising and

reconsidering their diets (Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018). Born on social media, the trend is predominantly picture-based and focuses on the body as a tool for inspiration. It also includes images of healthy meals or text-based posts with short dieting and exercise plans or

motivational quotes (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2018). Current research has shown that the consumption of such posts can have some positive short-term outcomes. Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2015) and Robinson et al. (2017) revealed that women who viewed fitspiration images felt more inspired to work out right after the exposure. Nevertheless, it appears that the advantages of fitspiration are limited to just that: only inspire to become fit. Fitspiration has been shown to negatively influence Instagram consumers’ mental health and

self-perception. Tiggeman and Zaccardo (2015), Robinson et al. (2017), Homan et al. (2012) and Prichard et al. (2017) have all found both correlational or causal connections between

exposure to fitness imagery and a decrease in one’s opinion of one’s body and overall mood. Additionally, exposure to fitspiration imagery may also result in detrimental physical outcomes. The trend has been shown to induce intents of disordered eating behaviors as well as planned compulsive exercise behavior (Holland & Tiggeman, 2017). Content analyses have pointed out similarities between fitspiration and thinspiration regarding weight

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stigmatisation and diet-culture approval (Tiggemann et al., 2018; Boepple & Thompson, 2016), which may explain the latter trend’s shortcomings. These characteristics can be noticed in the multitude of posts advertising intense short-term work-out programmes and routines or fat-burner supplements (see Figure 1). Furthermore, many Instagram fitness influencers promote some form of restrictive dieting (Lynch, 2010; Raggatt et al., 2018). Finally, Griffiths et al. (2018) demonstrated how frequent exposure to fitspiration and thinspiration images increased symptom severity in patients already suffering from an eating disorder. The potential harm is not limited to viewers. Holland and Tiggemann (2017) conducted a study on women who post fitspiration on Instagram and uncovered that these women “are more likely to engage in eating and exercise behaviors that are potentially harmful to their physical and mental health” (Holland & Tiggemann, 2017, p. 78). Their results showed that one out of five women were at risk of an eating disorder. It appears therefore that the overall body of research on fitspiration effects consider the trend to have negative effects on viewers’ minds and bodies.

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Social comparison theory and social discrepancy theory

Researchers have previously used multiple theories to explain the negative effects of fitspiration consumption, one being social comparison theory. Social comparison theory, which involves the idea that one evaluates one’s characteristics by comparing oneself to another within one’s environment (Festinger, 1954), has previously been used to explain low body satisfaction due to fitspiration (Homan et al., 2012). Social comparison may be

downward, where the viewer looks down on the element of comparison to self-enhance one’s personal characteristics and reassure oneself of one’s value (Strahan et al., 2006). On the other hand, an upward comparison is when one looks up towards the element of comparison and, as a result, is unable to maintain a positive opinion of one’s abilities (Tiggemann & McBill, 2004). Customarily, individuals will only compare themselves within relevant domains and with elements that are considered as appropriate for comparison. However, it appears that when it comes to physical appearance, women do not discern irrelevant contexts or elements, meaning that they are as likely to compare themselves with a model who works out 3 times a day as with a sugar-addict colleague (Strahan et al., 2006). This may be due to the strength of cultural norms surrounding women’s bodies (Tiggemann & McBill, 2004; Strahan et al., 2006). In the context of fitspiration, by exposing themselves to such images, viewers feel less satisfied with their bodies by comparing them to physiques that require strict diets and hours in the gym. Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2015) explain that this upwards

comparison continuously encourages the specific norm that only a specific kind of body can be considered as fit and healthy.

Yet, this fit ideal does not represent reality; there is an imbalance between women’s bodies and what they are expected to look like (Clayton, Ridgway & Hendricks, 2017). Social-discrepancy theory, which maintains that the higher the discrepancy between one’s actual body and one’s expected body leads to potential negative affective reaction. Women

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with a high discrepancy between their actual bodies and expected bodies are more likely to carry out an upwards social comparison (Clayton, Ridgway & Hendricks, 2017), this means that the further one’s actual body is from one’s accepted image of a perfect body, the higher the chances of engaging in upwards social comparison when exposed to said perfect body. Considering the unattainability of fitspiration bodies, making the trend akin to thinspiration (Dignard, 2017), these theories bring a better understanding behind negative outcomes of fitspiration, notably the connection between upwards social comparisons and discrepancy in female fitness photography.

Body positivity

Despite this widely-instilled idea of female health and fitness, counter-cultures such as the body positive movement have gained in momentum on social media over the past decade. The movement, which was initially born in the 1960s as an attempt to combat fat-shaming, has now evolved into the endorsement of beauty and health for women of any size and shape (Webb et al., 2017). It attempts to counter the notion that only one kind of body is beautiful and healthy. However, the body positivity movement has also had some negative stigma surrounding it. It has been criticised for being fitspiration’s other extreme of the spectrum, by promoting bodies that can also be categorised as unhealthy for being

overweight and at higher risk of various health issues, such as type II diabetes (deVos, 2018). Indeed, a content analysis of body positive images on Instagram found that 68.33% of the women depicted in the images were either overweight or obese (Cohen et al., 2019).

Despite this, an advantage of body positivity is that it helps to create a positive body image for those who are exposed to its content. Having a positive body image is associated with healthy lifestyle choices, such as more motivation to exercise, to eat in a balanced way and quit negative habits such as smoking (Andrew et al., 2016; Cohen et al., 2019). Thus, when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, consuming content that one can relate to and will

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make one feel good about their body matters. Going back to social comparison theory, individuals exposed to body positive content experience less body dissatisfaction than individuals exposed to fitspiration images (Strahan et al., 2006; Cohen et al., 2019). It could be argued that the reduction of upwards social comparison in studies using body positive pictures may be due to the reduced discrepancy between the viewer’s body and the image presented, the heightened resemblance, or relatability, acting as a form of reassurance of one’s self-worth (Clayton, 2017). It is therefore important to provide viewers with different representations of health, fitness and beauty to develop the currently limited

conceptualisation of health and fitness (Cohen et al., 2019). The body positivity movement and some of its sub-movements, like #HAES (Health at Every Size), which encourages a fit lifestyle regardless of how one looks like, provide an expansive view on what it means to be beautiful and fit and allow viewers to relate and feel like these concepts apply to them as well (Webb et al., 2017).

However, body positivity – as it is currently on social media – cannot be seen as an efficient substitute for fitspiration in terms of increasing viewers’ healthy lifestyle intentions, due to a hyper-focus on one’s appearance rather than one’s health (Cwynar-Horta, 2016). When it comes to health-improving decisions, research shows that individuals are more likely to change their behavior when body ideals are not used as a form of encouragement (Mason, 2018) and more likely to maintain them if the behavior change is not motivated by

appearance-related goals (Dignard, 2011; Prichard et al., 2018). Avoiding consuming content that allows for social comparison would be ideal and more beneficial to one’s health journey. However, a focus on the physical body and appearance is difficult to avoid on image-based social media platforms such as Instagram. Furthermore, the wide reach of social media platforms that focus on pictures is essential, as it stretches to individuals who would not

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necessarily have any interest in improving their lifestyle but might need it. It is therefore essential to understand what kind of Instagram content can be beneficial for women’s health. Average bodies

Fitspiration and body positivity have not been shown to be sufficient to improve viewers’ lives in terms of exercise and diet intentions. On the other hand, little attention has been given by both media and scholars to women who cannot be considered as representing the current fitness ideal, but cannot relate to the size 22 body positivity models either. Studies with average-sized women show that viewing this kind of bodies does not affect body

satisfaction as negatively as fitspiration does, regardless of the weight of the viewer (Homan et al., 2012). It is therefore expected that exposure to average-sized women portrayed in fitness contexts will result in lower body dissatisfaction, as the women will not be thin.

H1: Exposure to body positive fitness imagery will result in lower body dissatisfaction than exposure to fitspiration imagery.

Robinson et al. (2017) have considered the unattainability of fitspirational bodies as having a major contribution in discouraging women to start a health and fitness journey. Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2018) support this, arguing that for those who cannot achieve the fit body standard, due to their personal body composition or personal lives, exposure to fitspiration pictures may discourage viewers from wanting to try. In terms of persuasion techniques, Halliwell and Dittmar (2004) have also found no differences in advertising effectiveness when comparing the use of thin models or average-sized models. Therefore, it is expected that viewing images of relatable women, who have bodies that are considered as achievable, will encourage women to believe that health and fitness is possible for all types of women and motivate them to (a) exercise more and (b) eat in a healthy way.

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exercise and (b) eat in a healthy manner compared to exposure to fitspiration imagery and control pictures.

Since research shows that dissatisfaction with one’s appearance comes from comparing oneself to bodies that are unattainable (Tiggemann, 2012; Dignard, 2017), it is expected that expanding the spectrum of health, meaning including more than just one kind of ideal body, will include some that are similar to the viewers’ and therefore appear

attainable. As a result, it is expected that relatability will act as a mediator between the type of fitness imagery and body dissatisfaction. By viewing women that are like them in terms of body size, it is expected that participants will feel less dissatisfied with their own bodies.

H3: The relationship between type of imagery and body dissatisfaction will be

mediated by relatability. Participants who can relate to the type of imagery they were exposed to will experience less body dissatisfaction than participants who cannot relate to the bodies they were exposed to.

It is also expected that relatability will encourage participants to work out more and eat better, as the relatable content will make these lifestyles more approachable. Traditional fitspiration images have been considered as setting women up for failure due to their unachievable standards (Robinson et al., 2017; Mulgrew et al., 2018). To see an individual similar to oneself lifting heavy weights or in a complex yoga posture can make the activity seem more appealing and less out of reach than if it would be portrayed by a bodybuilder or a lanky Instagram yogi.

H4a: The relationship between type of imagery and exercise intention will be

mediated by relatability. Participants who can relate to the type of imagery they were exposed to will have a higher intention to exercise post-exposure than participants exposed to bodies

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that they cannot relate to.

H4b: The relationship between type of imagery and healthy eating intention will be mediated by relatability. Participants who can relate to the type of imagery they were exposed to will have a higher intention to eat in a healthy way post-exposure than participants exposed to bodies that they cannot relate to.

Context and individual differences must be taken into consideration as well. Not all women will respond to fitspiration in a similar manner. One aspect that might separate effects is the extent to which the person being exposed to fitness content has internalised the notion that thinness is a portrayal of health and wellness. Thin internalisation is influenced and reinforced by one’s social context, such as peers as well as the media (Thompson & Stice, 2001). Through exposure of the same repeated message (i.e “a fit body is also a thin body”), women may become more accepting of its content and undergo actions to attain this set ideal, which also serves as a way to reinforce the initial message, to themselves and to their peers (Thompson & Stice, 2001). Thin internalisation notably may influence the extent of the effects of fitspiration; for instance, a woman who has not internalised the thin ideal may not feel the need to compare herself and achieve a similar body to current fit body ideals.

Internalising this specific sociocultural norm is therefore expected to impact the participants’ level of body dissatisfaction. This constitutes the final hypothesis.

H5: Previous internalised fitness ideals will moderate the relationship between type of imagery and body dissatisfaction, where high thin internalisation will result in higher body dissatisfaction than low internalisation for the fitspiration condition but not for the body positive condition.

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A visual summary of all mentioned hypotheses and directions can be found in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Experimental model with the independent variable in blue, dependent variables in yellow,

mediator in green and moderator in red

Method

Participants

Participants were 108 adult women, aged between 18 and 53 (M = 24.40; SD = 6.31), who all owned and actively used an Instagram account. Seven individuals were excluded from the final sample due to not being Instagram users. Three additional women were excluded for being under the age of 18. Participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling on social media, which was selected for its advantages in terms of costs and time (Bryman, 2012). The online experiment was shared on the researcher’s personal platforms as well as posted on different Facebook groups. The majority of women selected silhouette D, which falls within the average range.

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Participants were recruited online through social media, specifically through Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. They accessed the online questionnaire after seeing a post shared by the researcher. The experiment consisted of 24 questions and started with an informed consent sheet, that all participants were required to agree to if they wished to continue. The first question concerned whether the participant owned and used an Instagram account and acted as a filter, where non-users were excluded from the rest of the

questionnaire. Following this, the pre-test included measurements of thin internalisation, body appreciation, current Instagram content preferences as well as exercise habits. Then, participants were randomly assigned to one of the conditions. After exposure to the stimulus, participants were required to fill in a post-test, which consisted of measurements of body dissatisfaction, relatability, motivation, inspiration, demographics and content opinions that were added to hide the aim of the study. The online questionnaire took, on average, 10 minutes to complete and participants were thanked and debriefed at the very end of the questionnaire. The data collection of the experiment took place between the 15th of November and 27th of November 2019.

Design

The research consisted of a 3 (body type: thin vs. average bodies vs. no body) x 2 (high thin internalisation vs. low thin internalisation) between-subjects factorial design. The experiment included a pre-test and a post-test. The first factor, and independent variable, was the type of body imagery (body positive fitness imagery vs. fitspiration imagery vs. control imagery), with the control conditions consisting of images unrelated to fitness. The second factor was previous internalised thin ideals (low internalisation vs high internalisation), which was treated as a moderator. The main dependent variables were exercise intention, healthy eating intention and body dissatisfaction.

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For the study, three different combinations of 12 pictures were created (see Appendix A). Each were edited to appear like an Instagram Explore page. All images were taken directly from Instagram and only from public profiles. For the fitspiration condition, all images were sourced either from the results of a search using #fitspiration or #fitspo or taken from accounts of popular Instagram fitness influencers such as Kayla Itsines (@kaylaitsines) or Sarah Stevenson (@sarahs_day). For the body positive fitness condition, pictures were found by searching #bodypositivefitness and #haes. Finally, pictures for the control condition were found on the account @dogsofinstagram as well as multiple popular travel accounts, such as @lebackpacker.

For the fitspiration and body positive conditions, the selection of images depended mainly on the size of the models’ bodies. This was based on the Body Image Assessment for Obesity figure (Williamson et al., 2000). Based on previous categorisation of the silhouettes (Webb et al., 2017), women matching categories 2 to 4 were selected for the fitspiration condition and for the body positive images, women resembling silhouettes 7 to 10 were selected. One ‘overweight’ silhouette was added in the body positive category to widen the selection. The selection was based on silhouettes because previous research has shown that the main element for low body satisfaction, when exposed to fitspiration, is thinness (Robinson et al., 2017). However, all pictures selected were of strong and sportive women, meaning that the selection was not based on actual weight, only on the silhouette.

A combination of both posed and active pictures were included in the stimulus (see Appendix A), since the influence of a body’s position remains an unsettled discussion within current research (Prichard et al., 2018; Mulgrew et al., 2018).

Images for the fitspiration and body positive conditions were pilot tested, to make sure that selected images were appropriate for the research and avoid selection bias from the researcher. Eight independent adult women reviewed 24 images and evaluated each on four

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points: how relatable the woman in the picture was to them (M(fitspo) = 2.46, SD = .49; M(BoPo) = 3, SD = .77), how relatable they thought the woman would be to other women, how body positive the picture was (M(fitspo )= 4.33, SD = .68; M(BoPo)=5.54, SD = .59) and how thin the woman in the picture was (M(fitspo) = 5.23, SD = .43; M(BoPo) = 4.19, SD = .21). For the fitspiration condition, the pictures with the thinnest and least relatable bodies were chosen. For the body positive condition, the most relatable and body positive images were chosen.

Measures

All scales and scale items can be found in Appendix B. Body dissatisfaction

Body dissatisfaction (M = 57.41, SD = 21.77,  = .907) was measured after viewing the images. The Visual Analogue Body Dissatisfaction Scale (Heinberg & Thompson, 1995) was used to measure it. It has previously been used in studies on fitspiration and body dissatisfaction (Homan et al., 2012; Tiggeman & Zaccardo, 2015; Slater, Varsani, Diedrichs, 2017). Participants were given three statements (“I am satisfied with my weight”, “I am satisfied with my body shape” and “I am satisfied with my overall appearance”) and had to rate their current feelings towards their own bodies on a scale of 0 (not at all) to 100 (very much). Participants could slide a cursor and indicate how they felt by placing the cursor on a value between 0 and 100. The mean of these three statements composed the participant’s level of body dissatisfaction, with low scores corresponding to high body dissatisfaction and vice-versa.

Healthy eating intention

Considering that much of the current research on fitspiration and eating behaviors focuses on disordered eating intention rather than healthy eating intentions, the scale used was created for this study and initially consisted of a six-items Likert scale. However, a

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principal axis factor analysis with direct-oblimin rotation was conducted and revealed that only four of the six items highly correlated with each other, loaded onto one factor and explained 41.26% of the total variance. The remaining two items loaded onto a separate factor and ultimately were excluded following a reliability test, increasing the scale’s

Cronbach’s alpha from .410 to .689. The final scale concerned the participants’ intentions in the moment and included statements such as “I would like to diminish my consumption of processed sugars” and “I am interested in eating a well-balanced diet” (M = 5.23, SD = 1.17). Healthy eating intention was measured from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much), meaning that scores closest to 7 translated into a higher intention to eat healthily.

Exercise intention

Since it is not possible to measure the stimulus’ effect on true behaviour, the measures tapped instead into planned behaviour. Mulgrew et al.’s (2017) one-item scale was used to measure exercise intention (M = 4.99, SD = 1.96), which was originally based on the theory of planned behaviour scale (Ajzen, 2010).

Relatability

Relatability was measured using a five-item Likert scale created for this research. Since ‘to relate to’ is defined as a possibility “to understand, like or have sympathy because of similarities to oneself” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.), the items focused on similarities between the images and the participant. Items included statements such as “I can identify with the women in the pictures” and were only shown to participants who saw an Explore page with fitness models. Participants responded on a scale of 1 (does not agree at all with the

statement) to 7 (totally agrees), meaning that higher scores resulted in higher relatability (M = 3.19, SD = 1.30). To create one variable, a principal axis factor analysis was done with these five items. The Eigenvalue and scree plot showed that all items loaded onto one factor

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and explained 53.53% of the total variance in the five items. The items were then collapsed into a new scale, that proved to be reliable,  = .771.

Thin internalization

Thin internalisation was measured before exposure to the stimulus. The SATAQ-4 (Schaefer et al., 2014) was used to measure internalised thin ideals and allowed to see to which extent participants believed in social ideals regarding body shapes prior exposure. Out of the ten items, only those concerning thin ideals specifically were included. As a result, the scale consisted of 5 items, measured on a scale of 1 (definitely disagree) to 5 (definitely agree) and included statements such as “I want my body to look very thin” or “I want my body to look very lean” (M = 4.24, SD = 1.40,  = .822).

Control variables

Participants were asked to provide their age (M = 24.40; SD = 6.31), country of residence (43.2% Netherlands, 18.36% Switzerland, 16.2% Australia) as well as were asked to identify with one of nine silhouettes, taken from Pulvers et al., (2004). Silhouettes were used as an alternative to BMI, to avoid participants feeling uncomfortable sharing their weight and height. Trait body appreciation was also added and measured with the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015) which consisted of ten items on a 7-point scale. Items were statements such as “I feel love for my body” or “I am comfortable in my body” to which participants had to agree or disagree with (M = 4.8, SD = 1.23,  = .943). Participants were also questioned on their time spent on the platform, with most participants spending 31 to 60 minutes a day on Instagram, and what kind of profile they were already following. Finally, current exercise habits were included to verify the accuracy of the effects of stimulus exposure on exercise intention. Physical activity level was measured using frequency, where participants were asked to indicate of how often they exercised. 54% of the

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sample reported currently exercising more than three times a week, 30% only once a week and 9% reported not exercising at all.

Results Randomisation check

The randomisation appears to be have been successful as no differences between groups were found for the variables age, body appreciation and current exercise habits. Detailed analyses can be found in Appendix C.

Manipulation check

A manipulation check was added to the questionnaire to verify whether participants had perceived the stimulus in the intended manner. A variance ANOVA revealed that the effect of the condition Image Type on the manipulation check – how thin the participants found the women in the pictures to be – was statistically significant, F(2,105) = 69.31, p = <.001. The post-hoc test, with Bonferroni correction, showed that the mean difference between those who viewed the fitspiration Explore page (M = 5.91, SD = .76) and those who were exposed to the body positive fitness Explore page (M = 3.48, SD = .99) was statistically significant (Mdiff = 3.45, p = <.001). The stimulus was therefore perceived as intended, where the women from the fitspiration Explore page were rated as significantly thinner than those from the body positive fitness Explore page.

The Levene’s test was significant, meaning that the variances of the groups were not equal. Hypotheses Testing

Effect of Image Type on Body Dissatisfaction

It was first expected that body positive fitness pictures would result in less Body Dissatisfaction than fitspiration images. The hypothesis was tested by using a two-way ANOVA with Image Type as independent variable (fitspiration vs. body positive fitness vs. control) and Body Dissatisfaction as dependent variable. The analysis revealed that the effect

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of Image Type on Body Dissatisfaction was not statistically significant, F(2, 108) = 2.34, p = .102. The type of image only explains 3.4% of variance in Body Dissatisfaction and this represents a weak effect, eta2 = .034. The post hoc test revealed that there are no statistically significant mean differences between the fitspiration Explore page (M = 53.56, SD = 20.74), the body positive fitness Explore page (M = 62.76, SD = 21.32) and the control page (M = 57.63, SD = 23.13). This entails that there is no effect of Image Type on participants’ levels of Body Dissatisfaction, as well as no differences between the three stimulus conditions. Body positive fitness imagery does not result in lower body dissatisfaction than fitspiration imagery, H1 is therefore not supported.

Effect of Image Type on (a) Exercise Intention and (b) Healthy Eating Intentions

It was hypothesized that body positive fitness imagery would result in both higher immediate intention to exercise and eat in a healthy manner, compared to the fitspiration pictures and the control conditions. A one-way analysis of variance showed that the effect of Image Type on the outcome Exercise Intention is approaching statistical significance, F(2, 107) = 2.63, p = .077. The effect size is moderate, eta2 = .04. This means that the predictor explains 4% of the variance in Exercise Intention. The mean difference between the Fitspiration condition (M = 5.04, SD = 1.94) and the Body Positive Fitness condition (M = 5.52 SD = .1.71) is not statistically significant (Mdiff = .47, p = .893). The same applies to the mean difference between the Fitspiration group and the control group (M = 4.41, SD = 2.11 ; Mdiff = .64, p = .467) and between the Body Positive Fitness group and the control group (Mdiff = 1.11, p = .074). Body positive imagery therefore does not result in higher intention to exercise, H2a is not supported.

Another one-way analysis of variance revealed that the effect of Image Type on the outcome Eating Intention is not statistically significant, F(2, 107) = .01, p = .986. The effect size is small, eta2 = .00. This means that the predictor explains 0% of the variance in Eating

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Intention. The mean difference between the Fitspiration condition (M = 5.21, SD = 1.21) and the Body Positive Fitness condition (M = 5.25 SD = .1.35) is not statistically significant (Mdiff = .39, p = 1.00). The same applies to the mean differences between the Fitspiration group and the control group (M = 5.25, SD = .96) and between the Body Positive Fitness group and the control group. Body positive imagery therefore does not result in higher intention to eat in a healthy manner, H2b is also not supported.

Mediation by Relatability

The mediation effect of relatability was tested on three different relationships. It was first hypothesized that relatability would mediate the effects of Image Type on Body

Dissatisfaction. Although there was no main effect of images on body dissatisfaction, the mediation model was tested. These effects were tested using SPSS PROCESS (Model 4, 1000 bootstraps, Hayes, 2018) with the body positive fitness imagery coded as 1 and fitspiration imagery coded as 0. The control group was excluded from the analysis, as they did not rate their Explore page in terms of relatability. The analysis revealed that there is no significant indirect effect of relatability on body dissatisfaction, therefore relatability is not a mediator, indirect effect = 5.72, SE = 2.88, 95% BCBI [-.22, 11.36]. No support was found for H3.

It was also expected that relatability would mediate the relationship between Image Type and Exercise Intention, where participants who could relate to the images would experience higher Exercise Intention than those who could not relate to the pictures. This time, the analysis demonstrated that there is a significant effect of relatability on exercise intention, relatability is here indeed a mediator, indirect effect = .61, SE = .22, 95% BCBI [.22, 1.09]. This means that those exposed to the body positive fitness Explore page were 0.6 more likely to exercise in the week following the experiment than those exposed to the fitspiration pictures. H4a is supported.

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A-Path. An independent samples t-test showed that viewers exposed to the body positive fitness content could, on average, relate more to the pictures (M = 4.02, SD = 2.21) than those exposed to fitspiration (M = 2.61, SD = 1.02). The mean difference, of 1.42, was statistically significant, t(74) = 5.51, p = <.001, 95% CI (.90; 1.93). This result is supported by the PROCESS analysis, coefficient = 1.42, p = <.001, meaning that the body positive fitness content was 1.42 units (on a scale of one to seven) more relatable than the fitspiration pictures.

B-Path. Using PROCESS (Model 4, 1,000 boostraps, Hayes, 2018), the analysis demonstrated that Relatability had no significant effect on Exercise Intention, coefficient = -.16, p = .23, 95% CI [-.43, .10]. Therefore, relatability does not influence participants’ immediate intention to exercise.

Finally, it was expected that relatability would mediate the effects of Image Type on Eating Intention as well. There was no significant indirect effect of relatability on Eating Intention, indirect effect = -.23, SE = .22, 95% BCBI [-.72, .16]. H4b is not supported.

Moderation by Thin Internalisation

A two-way ANOVA with Image Type as independent variable (fitspiration vs. body positive fitness vs. control), Body Dissatisfaction as dependent variable and Thin

Internalisation (high vs. low) as moderator revealed that the main effect of Thin

Internalisation on Body Dissatisfaction is statistically significant, F(1,108) = 28.72, p = <.001, eta2 = .21. 21.2% of the variance in Body Dissatisfaction is explained by previously internalised thin ideals and this represents a strong effect. The group with lower levels of internalised thin ideals on average experienced less body dissatisfaction (M = 66.85, SD = 17.85) after exposure to any of the three conditions than the group with high levels of internalised thin ideals (M = 46.85, SD = 21.01). The mean difference (of 20.00) was

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statistically significant, t(106) = 5.35, p = <.001, 95% CI (12.59; 27.42). This means that participants who have previously accepted the concept of thinness as ideals standards

experienced more body dissatisfaction overall than those who had not internalised thin ideals. Again, the main effect of Image Type on Body Dissatisfaction was not statistically significant, F(2, 108) = 2.34, p = .102. Finally, the interaction of Image Type with Thin Internalisation was not statistically significant, F(2, 108) = .116, p = .891, eta2 = .002. 0.2% of the variance in the outcome was explained by the interaction and this represents a very weak effect. Thus, Thin Internalisation does not moderate the relationship between Image Type and Body Dissatisfaction, meaning that the effect of Image Type on negative feelings towards one’s body is not stronger for respondents with higher internalised thin ideals than people with lower ones. Therefore, H5 cannot be supported.

Discussion

The goal of the present study was to uncover the effects of body positive fitness imagery on body dissatisfaction, healthy eating intention and exercise intention, in comparison with fitspiration, in adult female Instagram users. The study found no causal relationships between the type of images and body dissatisfaction as well as healthy eating intention or exercise intention. Furthermore, thin internalisation did not have any effects on these relationships and relatability did not have an effect except for the relationship between type of images and exercise intention.

First, against expectations, viewing body positive fitness imagery did not result in immediate lower body dissatisfaction. However, it appears that the results do go in the intended direction, where viewers exposed to fitspiration experience slightly more body dissatisfaction than those exposed to body positive fitness imagery or the control condition, which is in line with the current literature on body image and non-thin bodies in the media (Daniels, 2009; Cohen et al., 2019).

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It is possible that the results fell short due to the sample being too small. Previous studies focusing on Instagram fitness content and similar outcomes have usually found small effects (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015; Robinson et al., 2017). Thus, a larger sample may have been beneficial to uncover small but significant effects for this study. In fact, an a priori power analysis (using G*Power 3.1) conducted after completion of the experiment showed that the research, to reach a small effect (i.e. .04,) of image type on body dissatisfaction, would have required at least 237 participants. This drawback is omnipresent throughout the entire study.

Another explanation for the null finding could be the lack of repetition and variety of the stimulus throughout time. Participants were only exposed to one specific Explore page at one moment in time. A key factor that influence attitude and behaviour is repetition (Petty & Brinol, 2010; Nilsen et al., 2012). It is possible that such a short exposure to the bodies was not sufficient to impact participants’ current opinions about their bodies and lifestyles. Future research should take a closer look into how repeated exposure to such images over time may change viewers’ self-evolutions and behaviour change intentions.

Second, the research almost found a positive causal relation between body positive fitness imagery and exercise intention. Participants who viewed the body positive fitness content appeared to be slightly more inclined to exercise within the following week than those who viewed fitspiration pictures. This finding is interesting considering that the aim of fitspiration is to encourage viewers to work-out by showing what people’s goal should be: the perfect body according to Western social standards. It supports previous studies questioning the validity of fitspiration as an effective exercise motivational tool (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015; Griffiths & Stefanovski, 2019). By picturing unattainable bodies, fitspiration pictures discourage its viewers from exercising; it might be that the trend does not make people reconsider their exercise habits as much, because viewers do not believe that they can ever

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achieve similar bodies, making the work pointless (Robinson et al., 2017). Furthermore, it builds on the current literature which found that content that is body positive, as in

encouraging to love and respect one’s body (Cwynar-Horta, 2016), is likely to make people more inclined in considering and potentially adopting habits that are indeed respectful towards their bodies, such as exercising (Andrew et al., 2016; Cohen et al., 2019). The absence or reduction of negative emotions towards one’s body, created for instance by upwards social comparison, may result in a focus on the positive aspects of the pictures (strength, beauty, empowerment) that one then may want to include in their own personal lives. It seems that body positive fitness content does exactly what fitspiration is supposed to do. However, further research is necessary to examine this effect.

Connected to this, relatability did mediate the relationship between image type and exercise intention. This came as expected and is believed to be due to two main factors: first, most participants had average-sized bodies themselves, following their silhouette selection in the questionnaire. Due to this, participants could relate more to the body positive fitness pictures and thus, the presence of average-sized bodies may have generated positive body image within the participants, which in turn influenced their motivation and intention to exercise (Andrew et al., 2016). Secondly, relatability for this specific concept may have been stronger due to the nature of the stimulus. The women were shown in workout gear, either posing or exercising, which may have created a strong association between their bodies and sports and fitness in participants’ minds. By viewing women that are similar to them, participants may have been encouraged to start thinking about their personal fitness habits more than when exposed to pictures that are completely unrelated to their personal body. In a sense, participants may have considered more their workout intentions because they could directly picture themselves in the shoes of the models.

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All participants ended the study with very similar intention in terms of food habits. Multiple factors may have influenced this outcome. First, it is possible that the scale used did not fit the usual reactions and cognitive associations that accompany exposure to fitness imagery. Previous research has underlined that the fitness industry is closely associated with the notion of weight loss rather than a focus on health (Hutson, 2013). This phenomenon has also been noted within Instagram fitness content, denounced for remaining highly

appearance-focused (Boepple et al., 2016; Mulgrew et al., 2019). It is possible that weight-loss intentions are stronger than healthy eating intentions when exposed to this type of fitness content and participants may not associate an increase of vegetables or water intake as an effective weight-loss method. It may have been beneficial to measure disordered eating intentions instead, to verify whether fitspiration images are more likely to spark interest in unhealthy and quick weight-loss methods than body positive fitness images.

In connection to this, the absence of pictures of meals within the Explore page may have also contributed to the lack of association between the women and the overall concept of a healthy lifestyle. The stimulus may have not triggered participants into considering what healthy habits are but rather a focus on the physical, sportive aspect of it. Additionally, the manipulation check did not verify whether participants’ thought the women in the pictures ate in a healthy way, it is therefore not possible to tell if the stimulus transmitted an

all-encompassing idea of health and fitness. Future research should consider what visual or textual characteristics are needed to transmit the concept of health and fitness to viewers on social media.

A final and unexpected finding was that thin internalisation had no influence on the relationship between the images viewed and levels of body dissatisfaction. Prior studies indicated that individuals with higher internalisation of the thin sociocultural norm were more likely to be negatively influenced by thin-ideal depictions in the media (Dittmar & Howard,

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2004). A possible reason for this result would be that research on thin internalisation so far has focused predominantly on thin-focused content, such as thinspiration (Thompson & Stice, 2001; Dittmar & Howard, 2004; Tiggemann, 2006), which is known to depict extremely thin women. Therefore, it is possible that the bodies showed in the experiment were not thin enough to influence the result. It is possible that the muscularity of the models in the pictures also influence participants’ results. Previous research has shown that women who are very athletic, like professional athletes, are not physically evaluated in the same way as lean and toned models (Daniels, 2009). It is important to note that the fitspiration trend remains recent and that most of the participants have experienced the late 1990s and early 2000s thinness trends, such as heroin chic (Harold, 1999), transmitted notably by celebrities, which targeted extremely low weights and lack of body curves. Therefore, one could hypothesise that the models in the fitspiration condition did not represent the specific type of thinness internalised by the participants, which could explain why thin internalisation does influence directly body dissatisfaction, but not the connection between the Explore pages and one’s view of her body.

Limitations and Conclusion

In addition to methodological setbacks mentioned in the discussion, the following limitations must be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings.

First, the sampling method used may have highly influenced the results. Even if the outcomes between convenience samples and probability samples do not necessarily differ (Mullinix, Leeper, Druckman & Freeser, 2015), it is possible that this specific study fell short due to selection bias. The relatives and close friends of the researcher, those most likely to have partaken in the study, are mostly individuals with an interest or association with the health and fitness world. Furthermore, the online survey was also shared on fitness groups, such as the Sarah’s Day Facebook page, which consist of individuals with a pre-existing interest in fitness and/or holistic nutrition. Results are therefore specific to a certain category

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of people who might already have stronger exercise intention. Future research would benefit from adopting a probability sampling method and a larger sample.

Additionally, due to the nature of the design, the context of the stimulus is distant from one’s usual Instagram experience. The participants only saw one constructed Explore page, whereas Instagram users consume a variety of posts that may also contradict each other. For instance, users may encounter fitspiration and body positive fitness imagery meshed together within their feed rather than separately. Therefore, future studies should attempt to recreate a more accurate experience of the platform as well as explore the potential interactions of contradictory fitness content on body image and health intention.

Finally, participants did not have a set amount of time dedicated to view the images, meaning that some may have studied the pictures closely whilst others scrolled through swiftly before moving on to the rest of the questionnaire. Differences in attention may have impacted the results and research using similar types of stimuli should increase experimental control by forcing participants to stay on the stimulus page.

Despite these limitations, this study contributes to the current literature on new media and women’s body image. Emphasising the importance of research on tools, such as social media, that can promote a healthy lifestyle to masses, the research is, so far, the first to test and compare current idealised fitness bodies with average-sized (as of 2019) yet also healthy and strong bodies. Results support the growing evidence that athletic thin-ideals may not be beneficial to women’s health journey and that more research focusing on relatable bodies is necessary. It also offers a new direction for future studies, inviting scholars as well as content creators alike to focus and explore in more depth relatable body shapes and discourse within Instagram fitness posts. Finally, the study provides a new angle regarding true support and encouragement of Instagram users’ health and well-being.

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Appendix A - Stimulus Fitspiration Explore page

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Appendix B - Online experiment questionnaire including all variables and scales used for analysis

Q1 Welcome to this research survey, conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School of Communication, a part of the University of Amsterdam.The title of the study for which I am requesting your cooperation is ‘Instagram marketing and feelings’. This online survey will include a series of questions concerning your personal Instagram usage and will ask you to evaluate a series of images. The goal of this research is to generate insight into the extent to understand which of four products would be more suitable to specific Instagram content, depending on your personal feelings. As this research is being carried out under the responsibility of the ASCoR, University of Amsterdam, we can guarantee that: 1) Your anonymity will be safeguarded, and that your personal information will not be passed on to third parties under any conditions, unless you first give your express permission for this. 2) You can refuse to participate in the research or cut short your participation without having to give a reason for doing so. You also have up to 24 hours after participating to withdraw your permission to allow your answers or data to be used in the research. 3) Participating in the research will not entail your being subjected to any appreciable risk or discomfort, the researchers will not deliberately mislead you, and you will not be exposed to any explicitly offensive material. 4) No later than five months after the conclusion of the research, we will be able to provide you with a research report that explains the general results of the research. For more information about the research and the invitation to participate, you are welcome to contact the project leader Clara Duc at any time. Should you have any complaints or comments about the course of the research and the procedures it involves as a consequence of your participation in this research, you can contact the designated member of the Ethics Committee representing ASCoR, at the following address: ASCoR Secretariat, Ethics Committee, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 15793, 1001 NG Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680;ascor‐secr‐fmg@uva.nl. Any complaints or comments will be treated in the strictest confidence. We hope that we have provided you with sufficient information. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your assistance with this research, which we greatly appreciate.

Q2 I hereby declare that I have been informed in a clear manner about the nature and method of the research, as described in the previous page of this online survey. I agree, fully and voluntarily, to participate in this research study. With this, I retain the right to withdraw my consent, without having to give a reason for doing so. I am aware that I may

halt my participation in the experiment at any time.

I confirm that I am 18 years old or older at the time of the completion of the survey. If my research results are used in scientific publications or are made public in another way, this will be done such a way that my anonymity is completely safeguarded. My personal data will not be passed on to third parties without my express permission. If I wish to receive more information about the research, either now or in future, I can contact the researcher Clara Duc: clara.duc@student.uva.nl Should I have any complaints about this research, I can contact the designated member of the Ethics Committee representing the ASCoR, at the

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following address: ASCoR secretariat, Ethics Committee, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 15793, 1001 NG Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680; ascor‐secr‐fmg@uva.nl.

o

I understand the text presented above, confirm that I identify as a woman and agree to participate in the research study. (1)

Q3 Do you currently own and use an Instagram account?

o

Yes

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1-2 hours per day (5)

o

More than 2 hours per day (6)

Q6 (thin internalisation) What do you think of yourself right now?

On a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), to which extent to you agree with the following statements.

Strongly disagree (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Strongly agree (7) I want my body to look very thin (1)