Running head: SHOW US YOUR PROGRESS 1
Show Us Your Progress
:How Progress in Fitness Images affects the Intention to Work Out for Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters
Kari van den Kommer
Master’s Thesis: Graduate School of Communication
Student ID: 10549943 Supervisor: Dr. C. (Christin) Scholz
28 June 2019
2 Abstract
The thin body-ideal that has dominated in western society for over five decades has made room for a new body ideal, the ‘fit’ body. This body ideal is rapidly gaining popularity in the online social world and caused a new online phenomenon, the ‘fit girls’. This study compared two types of fit girl images, traditional images portraying fit bodies and so-called progress pictures. Progress pictures consist of two images which depict the fitness journey one went through in obtaining the idealised fit body they now have. This study aimed to discover if exposure to a progress picture resulted in a higher intention to work out than exposure to a traditional fit girl image. Moreover, the study examined if restrained eaters and unrestrained eaters were affected differently by such images. Female participants (N=126) were randomly assigned to be exposed to either a progress picture or a traditional fit girl image. Results showed no difference in intention to work out between women in the two conditions.
Restrained eaters however, did have a higher intention to work out compared to unrestrained eaters. A direct effect of self-efficacy on the intention to work out was found, but self-efficacy did not mediate the effect of progress pictures on the intention to work out. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect for type of eater on the effect of image type on the
intention to work out. For unrestrained eaters, exposure to the progress picture led to a negative intention to work out, whereas exposure to the traditional fit girl image led to an increase in the intention to work out. Restrained eaters had a higher intention to work out than unrestrained eaters in both conditions and thus seem to benefit more from progress pictures than traditional fit girl images. Fit girls who wish to motivate others to work out more should consider their audience deciding whether to post a progress picture. For unrestrained eaters it could work contradictory and demotivate them, whereas for restrained eaters it could be beneficial to show the progress of a fitness journey.
3
Keywords: Progress picture, traditional fit girl image, intention to work out, restrained eater,
body satisfaction, self-efficacy
Show Us Your Progress:
How Progress in Fitness Images affects the Intention to Work Out for Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters
The latest female body ideal is that of a thin yet muscular body. On social media, images of ultra-fit women, so called ‘fit girls’, are taking over photo sharing platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. In a society where almost 2 billion people are overweight and heart disease and strokes are death cause number one (Obesity and overweight, 2018), any help to reduce fat and sugar intake is welcome. Fit girls intend to motivate others to exercise, eat healthily and take care of their mental health. Popular fit girls can easily have over 10 million followers on Instagram, given their immense popularity they should be able to influence a lot of people with their motivational messages. According to theory, influencers such as
celebrities or vloggers, are perceived as more credible than marketers, and therefore people are more inclined to buy the products that influencers use or promote in their social media posts (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017; Lee & Watkins, 2016). The credibility ascribed to fit influencers, or fit girls, should then also change people’s negative attitude towards exercising and eating healthily. Paradoxically, research has shown that traditional fit girl images tend to have negative effects on their target group. Exposure to fit girl content has been connected to negative mood (Prichard, McLachlan, Lavis & Tiggemann, 2018; Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015) and feelings of depression (Prichard et al., 2018; Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015; Homan, McHugh, Wells, Watson, & King, 2012).
4 through social media. Are there ways in which this trend can actually have a positive impact on the target group? This study examines two types of fit girl images, and characteristics of members of the target audience to understand boundary conditions, that determine size and direction, to the effects fit girl images have on intentions to work out.
Body Ideals
Society’s definition of the ideal body has been fluent over time. In the 18th century,
overweight was considered beautiful, but over time that ideal body slimmed down. The thin body ideal has been central to the western beauty standard for over five decades. In Victorian time wealthy women started to neglect food in order to become ‘thin’ and in the twentieth century this tendency grew stronger due to newly available dietary schemes and help (Couch et al., 2016). From the 1950’s onward, the beauty ideal for women kept becoming thinner (Sypeck, Gray & Ahrens, 2004) and the amount of diet and exercise articles in media grew significantly (Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann & Ahrens, 1992). In contemporary western society, this thin-ideal has shifted towards a more athletic thin-ideal, focusing not only on thinness but on muscularity, too (Bozsik, Whisenhunt, Hudson, Bennett & Lundgren, 2018; Thompson et al., 2004). This new ideal which is more muscular, is mostly visible in online media.
Social Media Fit Girls
Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, which are particularly focused on images, have seen a big increase in the amount of images which idealise the ‘fit’ body. These so called ‘fit girls’ are thin and muscular, have more curves than girls with the thin body type, especially legs and glutes are significantly bigger than the thin body type. Popular fit girls have millions of online followers and are considered online celebrities, fit girl Ray Sommer for instance has over 20 million followers. As mentioned before, women’s
5 exposure to fit girls and fitspiration images has been associated with increased negative mood (Prichard et al., 2018; Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015) and body dissatisfaction (Prichard et al., 2018; Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015; Homan, McHugh, Wells, Watson, & King, 2012). Remarkably, traditional fit girl images have also been associated with negative effects on the intention to work out (Robinson et al., 2017, Chasler, 2016). This is counterintuitive as fit girls explicitly try to motivate others to work out regularly and eat healthily.
I argue that one possible explanation for this boomerang effect is that images of fit girls portray an unrealistic, unreachable body ideal, especially for those women who are not already engaging in physical activity regularly. This population, which is at higher risk of experiencing negative health-outcomes from physical inactivity or overweight, may feel discouraged, unable to reach the portrayed ideal, and demotivated to work out. In other words, both characteristics of the image and characteristics of the target audience may explain when and why fit girl posts have negative effects and when they may lead to more positive
outcomes. The current study examines effects of different types of images within sub-sections of the fit girl target group.
Image Characteristics
Fit girl images have certain characteristics. The pictures are usually taken in a gym environment or in an empty room and are often taken by the fit girl herself, in a mirror. The fit girl poses in gym apparel which accentuates her curvy yet muscular body.
Recently, in addition to this ‘traditional’ fit girl image, different image types have become more common, most prominently, so-called progress pictures. These pictures differ from traditional fit girl images in that they depict the transition from an initial body image to a later stage or end stage, typically portraying the journey to obtaining a fit body. In other words, the merger of ‘before fitness journey’ picture and ‘after fitness journey’ picture into one social media post. The latter picture being most accurate to the current situation and often
6 shares similarities with traditional fit girl images. The progress pictures is in fact an extension of a traditional fit girl image, as it adds a time component and a narrative to these static images. Progress pictures tell the story of how women transformed from having a ‘normal’ body type to having a fit body. Such pictures are relatively new and have not been studied by scholars yet. These pictures may influence the target group’s intention to work out differently than traditional fit girl images for several reasons.
First, progress pictures include a ‘before’ element, which portrays a more realistic body image as it shows imperfections. The progress picture is thus more relatable than a traditional fit girl image, which shows an unachievable goal of an ultra-fit body. It is known that perceived similarity drives similar behaviour (Hoffner & Buchanan, 2005). People who stumble across someone they feel similar to are more likely to copy their ideas, looks and behaviour (Hoffner & Buchanan, 2005). In narrative communication, narratives told by people who are perceived similar to the self are more believable and the behaviour is
perceived as normative (Hinyard & Kreuter, 2007). Women will thus be likely to perceive the ‘before’ image of the progress picture as more similar to themselves, compared to a traditional fit girl image. This may increase the perceived self-relevance of the images, which may increase the viewer’s likelihood to follow the recommendations made by the fit-girl.
According to Petty and Cacioppo (1979) people are more inclined to accept a message when the issue is personally relevant to them. Relatedly, seeing how somebody similar to them was able to make the transition into a fit body may increase the viewer’s self-efficacy to attain the desired ‘fit’ end goal. Previous research has shown that changes in self-efficacy are positively related to changes in behaviour (Condiotte & Lichtenstein, 1981, Bandura. Adams, Hardy, & Howells, 1980, Montano & Kasprzyk, 2015) and behavioural intention (Maddux & Rogers, 1983). Sniehotta, Scholz and Schwarzer (2005) found that self-efficacy was one of the most important predictors of intention to adopt or maintain regular exercise. People with exercise
7 self-efficacy were also more likely to still be exercising six months after a strength training intervention program (Neupert, Lachman & Whitbourne, 2009). So when people stumble across a progress picture and have high-efficacy, this should also result in a higher intention to work out.
Thus, I expect that exposure to progress pictures will lead to a stronger intention to work out than exposure to images of fit girls (H1) and I expect that this effect is mediated by self-efficacy (H2).
Viewer Characteristics
Next to characteristics of the fit girl posts themselves, characteristics of those who are viewing the images may determine whether effects are positive or negative. In particular, an individual difference that has been found to be an important influence on various behaviors related to fitness is eating. Restrained eaters, people who attempt to restrict their food intake in order to decrease or maintain their weight (Mills, Polivy, Herman & Tiggemann, 2002), react differently to food and fitness cues than unrestrained eaters. Fedoroff, Polivy and Herman (1997) found that restrained eaters ate more after being exposed to food cues than unrestrained eaters did. In a study by Vartanian, Wharton and Green (2012), restrained eaters were equally motivated to exercise and lose weight for appearance reasons as for health reasons, whereas unrestrained eaters were more motivated for health reasons. Restrained eaters also have been connected with more food cravings than unrestrained eaters (Polivy, Coleman & Herman, 2005). According to Joshi, Herman and Polivy (2004), restrained eaters reported lower appearance self-esteem compared to unrestrained eaters. The goal conflict model of eating behaviour explains that restrained eaters are able to resist food intake when they are exposed to food cues, because they remind them of their weight control goal (Stroebe, Van Koningsbruggen, Papies & Aarts, 2013). I expect a similar effect, in that restrained eaters should be reminded of their weight control goal when they see a progress
8 picture, because the progress shows weight loss and muscle gain. This should then result into a higher intention to attain their goal of restraining food intake. Since restraining food intake and working out are related to the same end goal, weight loss, it can be expected that those restrained eaters will also have a higher intention to work out compared to unrestrained eaters who do not have the goal of controlling their weight. Consequently, I expect that restrained eaters have a higher intention to work out than unrestrained eaters (H3).
Further, restrained eaters are more concerned and preoccupied with their body image than unrestrained eaters (Herman and Polivy, 1975, Anschutz, Van Strien & Engels, 2008) Body satisfaction and self-efficacy to work out are critical factors in determining whether restrained eaters have a high intention to workout. According to Cohen (2006), people with high levels of body dissatisfaction are more affected by media exposure. I expect restrained eaters to have a lower body satisfaction due to their preoccupation with their body image. This low body dissatisfaction should results into a higher intention to work out (H4), because they are more motivated to change that negative body image they have of themselves.
However, the relationship between body satisfaction and intention to work out should be higher in people who perceive themselves to be able to work out and reach their goal, that is, in those who have high self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is therefore expected to moderate the mediating effect of body satisfaction on intention to work out (H5), in that restrained eaters with low body satisfaction but high self-efficacy have a higher intention to work out than restrained eaters with low body satisfaction and low self-efficacy. In sum, I expect systematic differences between restrained and unrestrained eaters in their intention to work out as well as in the underlying mechanisms. What are the implications of these differences for their
reactions to fit girl images?
There is some existing research on the reactions of restrained eaters to images of idealised bodies. Specifically, restrained eaters rated ideal and own body sizes smaller after
9 being exposed to ideal bodies compared to unrestrained eaters (Mills et al., 2002). Viewing such images also affected restrained eaters’ satisfaction and mood negatively (Boyce, Kuijer & Gleaves, 2013). It is important to note that the latter research has not made direct
comparisons between restrained and unrestrained eaters. In addition to these reactions to idealised bodies being negative in restrained eaters, restrained eaters may also be more sensitive to exposure to idealised bodies than unrestrained eaters. According to the goal conflict model of eating behaviour, restrained eaters have two conflicting goals, a long-term goal of weight control and a hedonic goal of eating palatable food (Stroebe, 2008; Stroebe, Mensink, Aarts, Schut & Kruglanski, 2008). Environmental primes or cues can activate one of these goals, which results in a suppression of the other and increases the effect of the activated goal on behaviour (Papies, 2012). Because today’s daily environment is saturated with cues related to palatable (and usually unhealthy) food, this mechanism often leads to failure in the dieting regime of restrained eaters. In contrast, traditional fit girl images could activate the goal of weight control and could therefore stimulate restrained eaters to stick to their diet, and work out more. As such, restrained eaters may be particularly sensitive to exposure to any fit girl image.
In sum, the combination of lower self-esteem and negative, heightened reactions to idealised bodies in restrained eaters compared to unrestrained eaters may lead to more negative effects when restrained eaters compared to unrestrained eaters are exposed to traditional fit girl images. That is, for those who are already dissatisfied with their body, traditional fit girl images should seem even more unattainable, leading to low self-efficacy to work out and reach these goals. This mechanism may explain negative effects of traditional fit girl images found in prior work (Prichard et al., 2018; Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015).
Importantly though, restrained eaters may also benefit more strongly than unrestrained eaters from a feature that boosts their self-efficacy to achieve the desired body such as that provided
10 by progress pictures. That is, to the extent that progress pictures are effective in increasing restrained eaters’ self-efficacy to work out, the heightened sensitivity to fitness cues and higher body dissatisfaction of restrained eaters (compared to unrestrained eaters) should lead to higher intentions to work out. Therefore, it is expected that the effect of exposure to
progress pictures compared to traditional fit girl images on the intention to work out should be stronger for restrained eaters than for unrestrained eaters (H6).
In short, this study aims to contribute to the literature on fit girl images by studying the effects of the new phenomenon of progress pictures. Specifically, it aims to find out how progress pictures affect the intention to work out in women. Additionally, I hope to find out if this effect is different between restrained eaters and unrestrained eaters and if the presence of high self-efficacy increases the intention to work out. Previous research has shown that fit girl images have certain negative effects, this study hopes to provide evidence for positive effects on the intention to work out. More specifically, this study is the first to make a distinction between different types of fit girl images and thus digs deeper into the field of online motivational fitness posts, which opens up a new direction for future research. The study eventually aims to find insights in how fit girls could be a part of the solution to the growing problem of obesity and overweight in the western world.
Hypotheses
Progress pictures are a different type of fit girl image than the formerly studied
traditional fit girl images. Progress pictures are therefore expected to have a different effect on their target audience. The hypotheses and expected model of this study can be found in figure 1, the hypotheses that are examined in this study are the following:
H1: Exposure to a progress picture leads to a stronger intention to work out than exposure to a traditional fit girl image.
11 H2: The effect of exposure to a progress picture on the intention to work out is expected to be mediated by self-efficacy so that exposure to a progress picture increases self-efficacy which increases the intention to work out.
H3: Restrained eaters have a stronger intention to work out than unrestrained eaters. H4: The effect of restrained eaters on the intention to work out is mediated by body satisfaction, so that restrained eaters have a lower body satisfaction which increases the intention to work out.
H5: The mediation effect of body satisfaction on intention to work out in restrained eaters is stronger in restrained eaters with higher self-efficacy.
H6: The effect of exposure to a progress picture on the intention to work out is stronger for restrained eaters than for unrestrained eaters.
12 Figure 1: Expected model
Method
13 An online quasi-experimental survey has been carried out to determine the effect of the two types of images (progress picture vs. traditional fit girl image) on the intention to work out in groups of restrained and unrestrained eaters. Participants (restrained and unrestrained eaters) were randomly assigned into one of the two conditions. The
randomization was set up in such a way that the exposure to the stimulus type were evenly distributed for both groups. Half of the restrained eaters were exposed to the progress picture, the other half to the traditional fit girl image, the same counts for unrestrained eaters.
Procedure
After providing informed consent, participants were asked several questions regarding personal details, after which participants were asked to rate their current body satisfaction and self-efficacy to work out. They were then exposed to the stimulus, which they had to look at for at least 7 seconds. This time minimum was decided on to make sure people actually saw the stimulus. They could look at the picture as long as they wished but once they continued the survey there was no option to go back to the image. After the exposure to the stimulus participants filled out their intention to work out and their mood. Some additional personal details questions were asked. After filling out the survey, participants were thanked for their time and were provided with an email address which they could reach out to if they had any remaining questions.
Participants/sample
A total of 172 females were selected through a convenience sample. They were
contacted through Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, and were send a link after they agreed to participate. 126 participants finished the entire survey, 89 (70.63%) were from the
Netherlands and 10 (7.94%) from outside Europe. Ages ranged from 18 to 62 years, with a mean age of 27.48 years old (SD=10.40).
14 The stimuli for this study have been taken from an actual Instagram account
(Retrieved from: @Milutinović, 2018). Both stimuli consist of the same girl, and the traditional fit girl image is equal to the ‘post’ workout picture in the progress picture (see figure 2 & 3). The progress picture consists of two images, the most left consists of a girl with a rounder body, the right picture consists of the same girl with a toned and muscular body (see figure 2). The girl is wearing gym apparel in both conditions and poses similarly in both pictures. The progress picture has two dates in the right bottom corner which represent the date on which the photos were taken. This progress picture was posted on Instagram by the girl herself, in this exact state, with these exact dates. These dates also serve as a cue for participants that these pictures show progress. In the second stimulus, the traditional fit girl image, the date was left out as it could distract people’s attention and the date is not
customarily shown in traditional fit girl images. Therefore, the traditional fit girl image is a cropped version of the progress picture ‘after’ image, with the date which was placed in the right down corner, cut off (see figure 2 & 3). To check if the manipulation worked,
participants were provided with two statements at the end of the survey: ‘The image I was exposed to was one single picture of a girl wearing gym clothes’ and ‘the image I was exposed to consisted of two pictures, a ‘before’ and ‘after’ of a girl in gym clothes’. Participants were asked to choose the statements which described the image they were exposed to. The manipulation was checked with a chi-square test, and was significant (² (1,
N=126) = 118.24, p=.000). In the progress picture condition all participants could assign
themselves to the correct condition, in the traditional fit girl image condition two participants (3.2%) could not assign themselves to the traditional fit girl image. Overall, the manipulation was successful since most participants were able to depict to which particular condition they were assigned.
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16 Figure 3: Traditional fit girl image (Milutinović, 2018)
Measures
To determine whether participants are restrained or unrestrained eaters, they were asked whether they were restraining their food intake in any possible way (1 yes – 2 no). This categorical variable allows an unambiguous group assignment for the quasi-experimental variable. However, the quality of this variable was checked using three items from the
Revised Restraint Scale (RSS) (Polivy, Herman & Howard, 1988). Participants were asked to rate if they gave too much time and thought to food (1 never – 7 always), how conscious they are of what they are eating and if they have feelings of guilt after overeating (1 not at all – 7 extremely). Only these three items were chosen (out of 17 original items) because these
17 concern general food restriction behaviours. The mean score of the three RRS items depicted the score on dieting scale. An independent t-test compared the two scores and was significant (t (124)=4.19, p=.000). Levene’s test for equal variances was not significant (F=1.64,
p=.202). The categorical measure was therefore correctly measuring restrained food intake
and used in this study to measure restrained food intake.
The measure for self-efficacy was derived from the theory of planned behaviour and has been proven effective in previous research (Terry & O’leary, 1995; von Haeften,
Fishbein, Kasprzyk & Montano, 2001; von Haeften & Kenski, 2001; Chen & Tung, 2014). According to the theory, self-efficacy together with perceived behavioural control form ‘personal agency’ (Montano & Kasprzyk, 2015). Therefore, in this study a self-efficacy measure and a perceived behavioural control measure were used, these measures were derived from Ajzen’s (2006) manual to build a theory of planned behaviour questionnaire.
Self-efficacy refers to the confidence one has that they are able to perform the particular
behaviour, in this study this was examined by having participants fill out to which degree they felt the following statement was true for them: ‘I am confident that in the coming week I will be able to exercise more than I did last week’ (1 true – 7 false). Perceived behavioural control refers to the extent to which one beliefs that performing the desired behaviour is within their own control. This was examined by having participants rate the degree to which they agree to the following statement: ‘Whether I will be exercising more this week than I did last week is up to me’ (1 agree – 7 disagree). Both self-efficacy and perceived behavioural control were separately used in analyses, but it turned out that only the self-efficacy measure generated significant results. Therefore, this study only used the efficacy measure to measure self-efficacy.
The mediating variable ‘body satisfaction’ was measured according to the Body Image States Scale (BISS) (Cash, Fleming, Alindogan, Steadman & Whitehead, 2002). Participants
18 were asked to rate how satisfied they are with their ‘physical appearance’, ‘body size and shape’ and ‘weight’ (1 extremely dissatisfied – 9 extremely satisfied). Two out of the original five items from the original BISS scale were left out because they were not relevant for this research. The scores were the mean of three items, this scale has a Cronbach’s alpha level of 0.52, which is rather low, suggesting that results should be interpreted with care.
The dependent variable of intention to work out was measured following Rise,
Thompson and Verplanken’s example (2003). Participants were asked to rate how likely they found the following statements to be true for them: ‘I intend to exercise more in the coming week than I did last week’, ‘I plan to exercise more in the coming week than I did last week’, ‘I am likely to exercise more in the coming week than I did last week’ and ‘I expect to exercise more in the coming week than I did last week’. This scale has been checked for reliability and provided a Cronbach’s alpha level of 0.98 which is quite strong.
Results
Participants who did not finish the survey were excluded from analysis. 126
participants finished the survey and met the inclusion criterion of being a woman. Dummy variables for the variables ‘progress picture’ and ‘restrained eating’ were created. Body satisfaction was computed by taking the mean score out of the three items. The measure for self-efficacy was reverse coded, so that the higher the score, the higher the self-efficacy. The variable ‘intention to work out’ was computed by calculating the mean scores of the four items.
A two-way ANOVA was carried out to test three hypothesis. The first hypothesis, which states that exposure to progress pictures leads to a stronger intention to work out than exposure to images of fit girls, together with the third hypothesis, which expects restrained eaters to have a stronger intention to work out than unrestrained eaters, and lastly the sixth
19 hypothesis, which expects that the effect of exposure to progress pictures on the intention to work out should be stronger for restrained eaters than for unrestrained eaters. The two-way ANOVA was ran with intention to work out as dependent variable and image type and type of eater as independent variables. Data was tested for equal variance assumptions
(F(3,122)=0.60, p=.617) and for normality with a Shapiro-Wilk test (D(126)=0.95, p=.000). The latter was violated which means that the dependent variable (intention to work out) is not normally distributed. This has some consequences for the outcome, which will be discussed in the discussion section. The ANOVA revealed higher intentions to work out for participants who were exposed to the progress picture (M=4.51, SD=1.73) than those who were exposed to the traditional fit girl image (M=4.28, SD=1.61). The effect was not statistically significant,
F(1,122)=0.52, p=.474 and therefore the hypothesis is rejected. There is no main effect of
type of image on the intention to work out.
The third hypothesis, which expects restrained eaters to have a stronger intention to work out than unrestrained eaters, was tested by the same two-way ANOVA. This analysis revealed that restrained eaters have a higher intention to work out (M=4.77, SD=1.61) than unrestrained eaters (M=4.02, SD=1.66). The effect is significant, F(1,122)=6.51, p=.012 which means that there is a main effect of type of eater on intention to work out. The hypothesis is confirmed, restrained eaters have a higher intention to work out than unrestrained eaters.
The ANOVA further found a significant interaction (F(1,122)=4.63, p=.033). As shown in figure 6, the mean for restrained eaters was higher in both conditions. As
hypothesized, the effect of image type on intention is indeed moderated by eating type. Figure 7 demonstrates that there is a bigger difference between progress pictures and fit girl images in the restrained eaters than in the unrestrained eaters. The sixth hypothesis, which expects that the effect of exposure to progress pictures on the intention to work out should be stronger
20 for restrained eaters than for unrestrained eaters, is therefore confirmed.
Figure 6: Mean values interaction effect
Restrained eater Unrestrained eater
Fit girl 4.34 4.23
Progress picture 5.17 3.82
Figure 7: Interaction effect
It seems that progress pictures are only beneficial for increasing intention to work out when the beholder is a restrained eater. Interestingly, the mean for unrestrained eaters in the progress condition is quite low, 3.82 out of 7, which represents a low to no intention to work out.
The second hypothesis, which expected a mediation effect of self-efficacy on the effect of image type on intention to work out (H2), was tested by a mediation analysis using PROCESS model 4. This analysis was ran with intention to work out as dependent variable, dummy variable progress picture as independent variable and self-efficacy as mediating variable. This mediation was not significant. The overall mediation model was not statistically
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Restrained Unrestrained In ten tion t o w or k ou t Type of eater
Interaction effect of exposure to a progress
picture on intention to work out
21 significant (R²=0.07, F(1,124)= 0.59, p=.443) As shown in figure 4, the first effect in the mediation model, the effect of experimental group on self-efficacy, was not significant
B=0.26, SE=0.35, p=.466, 95% CI [-0.44, 0.96]). However, the second part of the mediation
model, the effect of self-efficacy on intention was significant (R²=0.32, F(2,123)= 28.73,
p=.000), with higher self-efficacy to work out leading to a higher intention. The second
hypothesis is therefore rejected, there is no mediating effect for self-efficacy on the effect of exposure to progress picture on the intention to work out. Only a direct effect of self-efficacy on intention to work out was found.
Figure 4: Mediation effect of self-efficacy
The effect of restrained eating on intention to work out was hypothesised to be mediated by body satisfaction (H4). This hypothesis was tested together with the fifth hypothesis, which expects an interaction in this mediation effect (H5). The analysis was conducted with PROCESS model 14, with intention to work out as dependent variable, dummy variable restrained eater as independent variable, body satisfaction as mediator variable and self-efficacy as moderating variable of the effect of body satisfaction on intention. The first half of
22 the mediation, the effect of restrained eating on body satisfaction was not significant (R²=.00,
F(1,124)=0.01, p=.928, B=0.02, SE=0.23, 95% CI [-0.44, 0.48]). As shown in figure 5, the
direct effect of restrained food intake on the intention to work out was borderline significant (B=0.51, SE=0.26, p=.050, 95% CI [0.00, 1.01]). However, the second half of the mediation, the effect of body satisfaction on the intention to work out was not significant (B=0.16,
SE=0.26, p=.536, 95% CI [-0.35, 0.67]). Thus, the effect of restrained eating on the intention
to work out is not mediated by body satisfaction. The fourth hypothesis is thus rejected. The mediation was also ran with separate items from the body satisfaction scale but it did not generate any effects either.
Figure 5: Mediation effect and interaction effect
The interaction was not significant either (B=-0.04, SE=0.26, p=.482, 95% CI [-0.15, 0.07]). Thus, if restrained eaters have high self-efficacy, this does not influence the effect of body satisfaction on the intention to work out. The fifth hypothesis is also rejected.
Discussion
This study aimed to find the boundary conditions of exposure to two types of fit girl images and audience characteristics on the intention to work out. More specifically, progress
23 pictures were compared with traditional fit girl images in their effect on intention to work out. This effect was checked for restrained and unrestrained eaters and the role of self-efficacy and body satisfaction were also examined. Exposure to a progress picture did not lead to a
significant stronger intention to work out than exposure to a traditional fit girl image. This could be due to the fact that intention was measured as intention to perform a certain
behaviour that refers back to previous behaviour, namely the intention to work out more than they did the in the week before. Because participants did not fill out how much they worked out in that previous week, it could be that participants coincidently exercised a lot more than they usually do, which makes working out more in the coming week impossible. In future research, this problem can be fixed by having participants report how many times they exercised in the previous week, and how many times they usually exercise during a week. Moreover, if the differences between people in how much they exercised the previous week are significantly large, this variance could have affected the effects as well.
In previous literature, self-efficacy has shown to be a very important driver of behavioural intentions (Ajzen, 1991). This study found similar results in that there was a direct effect of self-efficacy on the intention to work out. However, the effect of progress pictures on intention to work out was not mediated by self-efficacy, as hypothesised. This might be explained by the fact that participants were only exposed to one image. Possibly this particular image could affect people differently than other traditional fit girl images or
progress pictures. Having participants view more images should rule out any possible noise in future research. Moreover, participants were only forced to look at the stimulus for a
minimum of seven seconds, this could have negatively affected the comprehension of the stimulus for some participants. Lastly, the fact that the perceived control behaviour variable did not generate any results could indicate that the measure for self-efficacy was not entirely accurate.
24 This study found a direct effect of restrained eating on intention to work out, this can be explained in that both behaviours (restraining food intake and exercising) serve the same purpose, that of losing weight. One other possible explanation could be that people who restrain their food intake are more disciplined than unrestrained eaters, as it takes a lot of goodwill to resist the temptation of palatable food. These restrained eaters could then also have a higher intention to work out because they are already in that disciplined state of mind. It must be mentioned that the intention to work out is still not very high, the mean of 4.77 (out of seven) is slightly above ‘neutral’, and the significance was equal to .05 which is only just significant. This direct effect, however, was not mediated by body satisfaction, as originally hypothesised. The expected interaction effect of self-efficacy on this mediation did not occur either. It is not surprising that this interaction effect was not present since there was no mediating effect to begin with. The lack of the mediating effect could possibly be ascribed to the low Cronbach’s alpha level (0.52) of the variable ‘body satisfaction’. In future studies, the entire BISS scale could be used as this should account for a higher Cronbach’s alpha level and increase overall validity. Also, future research could focus on the possibility of self-efficacy as a mediator for the effect of type of eater on intention to work out. As self-efficacy is such an important driver for intentions, and restrained eaters should benefit especially from self-efficacy cues, this might be an interesting direction to do more research in.
This study tried to build upon Papies’ (2012) argument that restrained eaters have two conflicting goals, and it was hypothesised that restrained eaters would be reminded of their weight-control goal when they were exposed to a progress picture. The results suggest that restrained eaters are indeed reminded of their weight-control goal when they were exposed to a progress picture, as they reported a higher intention to work out than unrestrained eaters, who were actually negatively affected by progress pictures. Moreover, Progress pictures appeared to be more effective for restrained eaters than traditional fit girl images in increasing
25 the intention to work out.
Contradictory to previous work, which found that images of fit girls had a negative effect on the intention to work out (Robinson et al., 2017, Chasler, 2016), this study actually shows that traditional fit girl images could have a positive effect on the intention to work out, for both restrained and unrestrained eaters. It must be mentioned, however, that the intentions in both conditions were not extremely high, participants in three conditions scored around 4 (out of 7) which corresponds to only a very small intention to work out more than the week before. Only restrained eaters in the progress picture condition scored 5 out of 7, which corresponds to a small intention to work out more than the week before.
Restrained eaters thus benefit from progress pictures, but unrestrained eaters do not. Fit girls who want to stimulate others to follow their example in working out regularly should consider using more progress pictures to motivate restrained eaters to exercise regularly and more traditional fit girl images if they want to motivate unrestrained eaters. Moreover, increasing self-efficacy should also be beneficial in increasing the intention to work out. Therefore, fit girls could consider including methods to increase self-efficacy, for instance by explaining movements in more detail, or including encouraging statements. Future research could determine whether these methods to increase self-efficacy are actually valid.
This study generates important insights on the fit trend that is currently gaining a lot of attention on social media. It is the first to study different types of fit girl images and how they affect types of female eaters. The study provides important insights on how fit girls can use their platform in order to motivate others to exercise more. In a society in which more than 1.9 billion adults worldwide are overweight and obesity is a growing problem (Obesity and overweight, 2018), these insights could provide handles to overcome these problems.
26 This study comes with some limitations. First of all, the sample is a convenience sample which mainly consists of highly educated young women, 37% finished a bachelor’s degree and 33% a master’s degree. Moreover, 70% of the participants were Dutch, this decreases the external validity of the study. Possibly, overweight and obesity are not equally problematic in higher and lower educated women. The Dutch culture could also have
influenced the way people perceive online images or the intention to work out. In a country where sports are taken more seriously, for instance China or the United States, the current study could possibly provide very different findings.
Secondly, the variable ‘intention to work out’ was not normally distributed. The results of the analysis should therefore be interpreted with caution. To conclude, this study is the first to study the effects of progress pictures. It is clear that fit girl images with an element of progress have a different effect on women, especially women who are restraining their food intake.
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