The effects of following fashion
influencers on Instagram
A literature review on negative effects on Instagram users’ body image and a content analysis on fashion influencers’ images on Instagram
Jaymee Rietbergen 10627898 Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication Master’s Programme Communication Science
Persuasive Communication dr. S. M. Zwier 28th June, 2019
1 Abstract
Social media and social networking sites have taken a central place in the life of many young people nowadays. Instagram is an image-based social networking site, and has the largest media platform growth. The aim of this research was to map what characteristics of Instagram posts can have negative effects on Instagram user’s body image, and to what extent those characteristics are present in present-day popular Instagram accounts. First, a systematic study of the existing empirical literature was conducted (Study 1). The results showed that exposure to attractive people, thin-ideal women, and fitspiration images on Instagram can have an effect on users’ body dissatisfaction and self-esteem. Next, a systematic content analysis was conducted of popular Dutch and Belgian fashion influencers’ Instagram posts. The posts were analyzed on the presence of the three characteristics found in Study 1. It was found that the posts by fashion influencers on Instagram most likely contained attractive people, followed by presence of thin-ideal women, but hardly contained fitspiration images. Further, it was found that followers react to the presence of thin-ideal women by an increased number of comments and to fitspiration images by a higher number of ‘likes’. It is concluded that when Dutch and Belgian Instagram users follow fashion influencers, this could have negative effects on their body dissatisfaction and self-esteem. The study thereby provides a useful starting point for future research on the consequences of using Instagram, or more generally using image-based social networking sites.
2 Introduction
Extensive research has been done on factors that influence body image. A lot of literature has documented the importance of sociocultural factors like cultural norms, family and peers that play a role in influencing body image (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). Other important factors that influence body image are the mass media (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008; Thompson et al., 1999; Tiggemann, 2011), including social networking sites.
Social networking sites, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, are online
communication forms widely popular with a majority of adolescents and emerging adults (Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008). Research by Newcom Research, the largest annual trend research on the use of social media in the Netherlands, shows that the use of social media is still increasing in the Netherlands. Especially the social networking site Instagram has the largest media platform growth nowadays (Oosterveer, 2019).
Instagram creates the possibility of creating personal online public or private profiles, sharing photos and information and forming relationships with other Instagram users. But, being active on Instagram can have negative effects as well. Specifically, with the continuous growth of Instagram’s user-base, significant concerns have arisen around the potential
negative effects that the -often idealized and highly staged- pictures of women’s bodies on Instagram can have on users’ body image (Brown & Tiggemann, 2016; Tiggemann &
Barbato, 2018). The present study was therefore guided by the following Research Question:
What characteristics of Instagram posts have negative effects on Instagram users’ body image, and to what extent are those characteristics present in present-day popular Instagram accounts?
A lot of researchers have already studied social media, social networking sites, its consequences and effects. Instagram and its effects however has been studied less so far because of its short existence, since 2010. The presence of Instagram-influencers is a very
3 recent phenomenon, which has not been studied extensively. Therefore, researching
Instagram, Instagram-influencers and the content they post will add to current knowledge on this topic. In addition to expanding the knowledge on Instagram, this present study expands the current knowledge on social networking sites.
Mapping the possible effects of the use of Instagram is of great importance because of the continuous growth of its user-base, especially among youth. Besides, because of the huge number of young followers that some Instagram-influencers have, researching possible effects is of high importance. The recent study can contribute to parents’ and teachers’ current
knowledge about the potential effects of Instagram on young people, which they can put to use for encouraging a responsible use of Instagram.
Theoretical background
Instagram is an image-based social networking site, launched in 2010. Instagram has only been available for ten years, but is one of the most popular media applications nowadays. Worldwide there are around 500 million Instagram users that use the application on a daily basis (Statista, 2017). In the Netherlands there are 4,8 million Instagram users in 2019, with a 20 percent increase from 2018. Of those 4.8 million users, there are 2.1 million daily active Dutch Instagram users (Oosterveer, 2019).
There are several reasons for the popularity of Instagram. First, the uniqueness of Instagram is that its image-based, with the ability to edit and share photos and videos. Second, the nature of the application is visual, in contrast to other popular social networking sites that are mainly textual. Third, it has a high user engagement rate. Which means that there is a good response of the audience to what is offered by the sender, e.g. images, videos, on Instagram. The interaction on Instagram is high, in the form of e.g. likes, comments, shares. Because of this, Instagram turned into a valuable marketing tool as well. Research by Statista
4 shows that 98 percent of fashion brands had an Instagram profile in 2016 (Statista, 2016). Fashion brands posted an average of 1.07 posts every day (Statista, 2018).
With Instagram turning into a valuable social media marketing tool, the phenomenon of Instagram-influencers emerged. Influencers are Instagram users that have a large
following-base. There are different levels of influencers: nano (maximum of 5000 followers), micro (between 5000 and 50.000 followers), meso (between 50.000 and 100.000 followers), macro (between 100.000 and 1.000.000 followers), and mega (above 1.000.000 followers) (Möller, 2018).
To understand the relationship between Instagram use and potential behavioral and emotional effects, it is important to research several aspects that underlie the possible
relationship. One of the aspects that underlie the possible relationship between Instagram use and potential behavioral and emotional effects are users’ motives for using Instagram. Several studies have looked at the motives for using Instagram. Research by Lee, Lee, Moon and Sung (2015) suggests the following five primary social and psychological motives of using Instagram: social interaction, archiving, self-expression, escapism, and peeking. Sheldon and Bryant (2016) identify the following four motives for using Instagram: surveillance,
documentation, coolness, and creativity. These studies show two sides of Instagram. On the one hand, Instagram can be used for self-enhancement: social interaction, self-expression, archiving, documentation, coolness, and creativity. On the other hand, there are motives of using Instagram with a more negative connotation: escapism, peeking, and surveillance.
Several studies target the relationship between Instagram and body image concerns in particular (Cohen, Newton-John, & Slater, 2017; Fardouly, Willburger, & Vartanian, 2018; Feltman & Szymanski, 2018; Hendrickse, Arpan, Clayton, & Ridgway, 2017). There is a growing amount of research done on aspects that underlie the relationship between Instagram and aspects of body image. Holland and Tiggemann (2016) concluded in their systematic
5 review that photo-based activity plays a significant role in the relationship between social networking use and body image and eating concerns. Meier and Gray (2014) found in their research that primarily engaging in activities with photo’s (e.g. posting photos, viewing friends’ photos) on Facebook was related to body image concerns. This relationship could also be present at Instagram because Instagram is a photo-based social networking site, and photo activities are the core of Instagram. Besides correlational research that has shown a relationship between Instagram use and body image concerns, experimental research has shown an adverse impact on body image after exposure to idealized Instagram images (Brown & Tiggemann, 2016; Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015).
The theoretical framework that can explain the negative effects of exposure to Instagram and body image is the process of social comparison (Levine & Murnen, 2009; Want, 2009). Festinger (1954) proposed the social comparison theory, that argues that people aim for accurate self-evaluations. These self-evaluations are gained by comparing themselves to others. By doing so, uncertainty on opinions, abilities, and appearance are reduced and the self can be defined. According to Festinger (1954) social comparison is a way of
self-enhancement, with upward and downward comparisons. When women compare themselves with the sociocultural thin ideals of beauty, this constitutes an upward comparison: women do not always meet the beauty ideals as portrayed in the media. This will result in body and appearance dissatisfaction (Want, 2009). Moreover, Want (2009) shows that women who are already unsatisfied or not happy with their body image tend to seek out upward social
comparison standards. By doing so, it results in more body dissatisfaction (Want, 2009). There are two factors that play a role in the operation of social comparison on
Instagram. The first factor is the ease of social networking sites, i.e. it is very easy to connect to social networks at any time and place of the day. Because of this, social comparisons on the basis of appearance can be easily, quickly and numerously made (Tiggemann & Miller,
6 2010). The second factor lies in the elaboration of Festinger’s social comparison theory (1954). Festinger proposes that when people compare themselves with others, they tend to choose people that are similar to them, in order to form a good self-evaluation (1954). By using Instagram people expose themselves to the images posted by people who they consider similar to them, which creates an environment for social comparisons.
Research by Brown and Tiggemann (2016) concludes that not only exposure to peer images on Instagram can have adverse effects on women’s body image. Likewise, exposure to attractive celebrity images can have negative effects on women’s body image. Besides peers, people can follow the personal accounts of celebrities on Instagram. Because of Instagram turning into a valuable social media marketing tool, Instagram-influencers arose, who became celebrities as well. Influencers are in essence bloggers: online persons that have influence on a specific group of people with whom they record and discuss their personal feelings, ideas and opinions related to a specific topic or event. (Hsu, Lin, & Chiang, 2013). In this, fashion influencers may be particularly pertinent to Instagram. Research shows that “authenticity” is the key of being a popular fashion blogger (Marwick, 2013). Authenticity consists of three aspects. First, it is an apparent way of candid self-expression. Second, authenticity means the building of affective relations between the fashion blogger and its readers. Applying this to Instagram, the interactive features (e.g. comments, sharing, stories) create the perfect environment for building a set of affective relations between the fashion influencer and its followers. Third, authenticity is seen by fashion bloggers in conjunction with commercial interests (Marwick, 2013). Instagram being a valuable marketing tool for brands, and not losing authenticity when fashion influencers collaborate with brands, creates a win-win situation. Last, Instagram as an image-based platform lends itself well for portraying outfits and products. Following the effect found in the research by Brown and Tiggemann (2016),
7 and see Instagram influencers as celebrities, following Instagram influencers could have negative effects on Instagram users’ body image.
Study overview
The main aim of the present study was to map what characteristics of Instagram posts have negative effects on Instagram users’ body image, and to what extent those
characteristics are present in present-day popular Instagram accounts. The focus was on fashion-related Instagram accounts in the present study because they are highly present accounts on Instagram, but do not have the major aim of posting images related to body image. This study consists of two parts: first a systematic literature study was conducted (Study 1), followed by a content analysis (Study 2). Study 1 aimed to establish what characteristics of Instagram posts have been shown to have negative effects on users’ body image, according to the academic research evidence so far. Study 2 then analyzed to what extent these characteristics are present in present-day popular fashion-related Instagram accounts nowadays.
Below, Study 1 will be discussed following the structure of: introduction, theoretical background, method, results, conclusion. Second, Study 2 will be discussed following the same structure. Thereafter, the overarching research question will be answered in the conclusion of the complete study.
STUDY 1 Introduction
Because of the recent emergence of social media and Instagram in particular, a lot of research regarding the effects of its use must still be done. By reviewing the relevant literature so far in a systematic way, current knowledge on the relationship between exposure to Instagram
8 content and potential effects can be mapped. The present study undertook such a systematic review of the research literature so far. The research question that guided the systematic review was the following:
What characteristics of Instagram posts have negative effects on users’ body image according to the academic research evidence so far?
Below, the method section will elaborate on the search strategy and study inclusion and exclusion criteria used for the literature study. Second, the results of the systematic review will be discussed, followed by a conclusion.
Methods
Search Strategy
A systematic literature review was conducted over research articles published in the last ten years (October 6, 2010 – now, 2019). Instagram launched in 2010, therefore, the time period of the past ten years was chosen (from 2010 up to and including 2019). With the use of the electronic database Web of Science, relevant articles were retrieved. The search term
‘Instagram’ was always included in the search. Besides that, the following search terms were used: emotional, affective, effect, affecting, exciting, emotive, feeling, consequence, outcome, impact, association.
Study inclusion and exclusion criteria
Several inclusion criteria for articles relevant for this systematic literature review were used. Studies were included if they (1) were published in a scientific, peer-reviewed journal. Further, studies were selected if they (2) had the use or exposure to ‘Instagram’ as independent variable in the study, and (3) had negative emotional/affective effects in the
9 study as a dependent variable. In addition, studies were only included if they (4) used a
survey or experiment as a method of research.
Studies were excluded from the literature review if they (1) were not written in English or Dutch, (2) used secondary data, (3) studied effects of the use of other social network sites than Instagram (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest), and/or (4) focused on positive or non-emotional/affective consequences of the use of Instagram.
Results
From the Web of Science database search, a total of 384 articles were retrieved. Of this initial group of articles, 340 articles were excluded for the literature review because they were not on the topic of this literature review, did not have the use or exposure to Instagram as
independent variable, did not have an emotional/affective effect as dependent variable, or did not have a survey or experiment as a method of research. From those 44 remaining articles, a full systematic literature review was conducted. After that, another seventeen articles were excluded. Of those seventeen articles, five articles were excluded because they were not about the relevant topic, seven articles were excluded because they studied a different relationship between variables, and the last five articles focused on social networking sites in general. Eventually, this means that the literature study was based on 26 articles that met all criteria.
Summary
The 26 articles that were retrieved from the existing literature were coded for a) their study characteristics, b) the way Instagram use had been measured or manipulated in the study, and c) the effects studied.
An overview of all findings can be found in Appendix A. Below follows a summary of the findings.
10
Study characteristics
Figure 1 shows that most academic studies that fall within the criteria of the present literature review have been published in 2018(4-12, 20, 23, 26). Fifteen of the articles were studies that were
based on a survey design(1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15-17, 21-26) for data collection and the other eleven studies
were based on experimental data(2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12-14, 18-20). Further, Figure 2 shows that most
published academic studies so far have been conducted in the United States(5, 11, 13, 15, 23, 25, 26),
closely followed by Australia(4, 7, 18, 19, 22, 24). Studies conducted among South-American and
African respondents on the other hand are not as yet represented in the English-language academic literature. Figure 3 shows that the majority of studies had respondents with an age range of 18 years and older(3-5, 7-11, 14, 16-26). The number of participants in the studies ranged
from 117 to 1064, of which fifteen articles had a females-only group of participants(4-8, 10-12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 23, 24, 26).
Figure 1. Year published
2015 2016
2017 2018
11
Figure 2. Country
Figure 3. Age range
Measurement/manipulation of Instagram use
The independent variable ‘Instagram’ was used in 21 of the studies(1, 2, 4-7, 9-15, 17-22, 25, 26). In the
other five studies(3, 8, 16, 23, 24) the independent variable was social networking sites (SNSs)
more broadly (e.g. Facebook, Snapchat), in which Instagram was also included.
The way the studies measured or manipulated Instagram/SNSs in eighteen studies was through measuring usage of Instagram/SNSs(1, 3, 4, 6-9, 11, 13-17, 21-25), by exposing the participants
7 6 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 United StatesAustralia
United Kingdom The Netherlands South Korea Korea Saudi Arabia Singapore Malaysia Germany Unknown 20 3 3 0 5 10 15 20 25 18 < 18 > Unknown
12 to different types of Instagram images(2, 5, 10, 12, 18-20), or by a combination of these
measures(26). Of the eight studies using exposure to types of Instagram images as independent
variable, two used fitspiration images(19, 26), two used selfies(5, 12), two used images of
influencers or celebrities(2, 18), one used positive images(20), and one used photos of food
and/or a foodie(10).
Measurement of effects
The 26 studies focused on different effect variables, presented in Table 1. In sum, most studies used the following dependent variables: social comparison(1, 7-9, 11-13, 19-23, 25, 26), thin
ideal internalization(5, 14, 15, 24), body dissatisfaction(4, 7, 15, 18, 19, 23), self-esteem(6, 9, 10, 17, 19, 22),
mood(4, 6, 14, 18, 19), and body image(4, 12, 17, 26). Followed by studies with a focus on food
intake/dietary choices(2, 16, 23), self-objectification(4, 11, 26), positive and negative affect(9, 13, 20),
and body surveillance(11, 23, 24). The other emotional/affective effects researched in the studies,
were present less (see Table 1).
Table 1.
Dependent variables
Dependent variable Number of articles Reference
Social comparison 14 1, 7-9, 11-13, 19-23, 25, 26
Body dissatisfaction 6 4, 7, 15, 18, 19, 23
Self-esteem 6 6, 9, 10, 17, 19, 22
Mood 5 4, 6, 14, 18, 19
Body image 4 4, 12, 17, 26
Thin ideal internalization 4 5, 14, 15, 24
Food intake/dietary choices 3 2, 16, 23
Self-objectification 3 4, 11, 26
Positive and negative effect 3 9, 13, 20
Body surveillance 3 11, 23, 24 Depression 2 1, 21 Food-related disorders 2 10, 16 Internalization of cultural standards of beauty 2 11, 26
Oral health and beauty 1 3
13
Coping strategies 1 6
Facial dissatisfaction 1 7
Happiness and life satisfaction 1 8 Envy 1 9 Inspiration 1 9 Narcissism 1 9 Perfectionism 1 10 Body satisfaction 1 14
Body appreciation and self-compassion
1 14
Self-discrepancy and self-schema 1 17 Self-worth 1 22 Appearance evaluation 1 24 Loneliness 1 25 Note. N = 26
Of the fourteen studies that researched the role of social comparison in the effects of exposure to Instagram images on users’ feelings, four studies found a mediating role for social
comparison(11, 19, 22, 26). Specifically, four studies found a positive relationship between
Instagram activities and social comparison(1, 7, 8, 20). This means that individuals that spend
more time on Instagram, will compare themselves more with others on Instagram.Three studies found a negative effect of Instagram use especially for those people who have a higher tendency to socially compare themselves(9, 12, 13), one study showed a relationship between
tendency to social compare oneself with Instagram images and disordered eating outcomes(23),
one study showed a relationship between social comparison and loneliness(25), and one study
showed both positive and negative associations between frequent Instagram use and social comparison dependent on amount of strangers followed on Instagram(21).
Of the six studies that researched the relationship between Instagram and body dissatisfaction, five studies found a positive relationship(4, 15, 18, 19, 23), and one study did not
14 Of the six studies that researched the relationship between Instagram and self-esteem, three studies did not find a relationship(6, 9, 22), one study found that exposure to Instagram
fitspiration images led to a decreased self-esteem(19), one study found that self-esteem had a
moderating effect in the relationship between Instagram actors’ body shape and peer users’ eating attention(10), and the last study found a stronger negative effect of Instagram use on
body dissatisfaction when an individual has a lower self-esteem(17).
Of the five studies that had ‘mood’ as dependent variable, only one study did not find a relationship(4), while the studies on the relationship between exposure to celebrity and peer
images(18), and fitspiration images(19) on Instagram and mood both found increased negative
mood after exposure. One study found that when viewing self-compassion quotes on Instagram, the negative mood reduced(14).
Two of the four studies that researched thin-ideal internalization found an association with Instagram activities(15), of which one when following appearance-related accounts(24).
One study found a moderating role for thin-ideal internalization(14), and one found that the
more Instagram users believed the posted Instagram selfies were digitally modified, the less likely they would internalize the thin-ideal(5).
In the studies that found negative effects of Instagram use on several emotional aspects (1, 4, 7, 8, 15, 18-21, 23, 24), different ways of measuring or manipulating Instagram activities
have been used. In six of those studies the use of Instagram in its entirety was used as independent variable(1, 8, 9, 21-24), and in five of the studies the focus was on exposure to
specific types of images or characteristics(4, 7, 18-20) of Instagram-posts. Of those five studies,
four of them used images of ‘attractive’ people: attractive images(4), thin-ideal women(7),
attractive celebrity and peer images(18), and fitspiration posts(19). The last study of those five,
15 Conclusion
This systematic literature review summarized the existing empirical evidence for the relationship between Instagram activities and emotional/affective effects on users of
Instagram. In most of the studies, Instagram activities in its entirety(1, 8, 9, 21-24) has been used
as measure. In the other studies that found a positive relationship between Instagram activities and negative emotional/affective effects, the majority used exposure to images or Instagram-posts of ‘attractive’ people(4, 7, 15, 18, 19). On the whole, the evidence suggests that using
Instagram can have negative effects on its users(1, 4, 7, 8, 15, 18-21, 23, 24), where different
emotional/affective effects are involved. The most prevalent results were for the effect of Instagram activities on body dissatisfaction(4, 15, 18, 19, 23). Additionally, a positive relationship
between Instagram activities and social comparison has been found in several studies(1, 7, 8, 20, 21). In addition, positive relationships between Instagram activities and lowered
self-esteem(19), higher thin-ideal internalization(15, 24) and lower mood(18, 19) have been found in the
systematic review.
There are a few limitations to this study, that have to be kept in mind while looking at the results presented in the systematic review. First, the studies included in the systematic review come from the academic, English-language database Web of Science. This means that a potential data-base of study reports in other languages than English or published in other outlets were not included. A second limitation is that some studies measured Instagram use, whereby respondents had to indicate their frequency of use. However, respondents may give socially desirable answers or have an incorrect recall. This could lead to incorrect results in the studies. A third and final limitation is the publication bias, which means that studies with significant results are being published more than studies without significant results.
16 information about the number of studies that did not find significant effects because those are not published. This may lead to an overestimation of the true effects.
In the content analysis that follows after this systematic review, the following content characteristics of fashion-related influencer posts on Instagram will be focused on:
• First, it was shown that the presence of ‘attractive people’ in Instagram-posts had an effect on body dissatisfaction, therefore it will be researched to what extent this characteristic was present in the posts of Instagram-influencers.
• The second characteristic that showed an effect on body dissatisfaction is thin-ideal women in Instagram-posts, therefore it will be researched to what extent this characteristics was present in the posts of Instagram-influencers.
• The third characteristic that showed an effect on body dissatisfaction and self-esteem are fitspiration images on Instagram, therefore it will be researched to what extent this characteristics was present in the posts of Instagram-influencers.
STUDY 2 Introduction
Extant research has shown that that there is a relationship between the use of Instagram and negative effects on body dissatisfaction and self-esteem (Study 1). In addition, the previous literature study (Study 1) showed that primarily the portrayal of ‘attractive people’, ‘thin-ideal women’ and ‘fitspiration images’ in posts on Instagram can have negative effects on users’ body dissatisfaction and self-esteem. The existing research focused mostly on professional Instagram posts with models and celebrities. Little research has been done on another kind of models that are highly present on Instagram nowadays; fashion influencers.
17 Fashion influencers are a popular type of influencer on Instagram nowadays. The posts of fashion influencers on Instagram are mostly focused on presenting clothes, shoes, and accessories. Fashion influencers however typically show more aspects of their lives, for example when they are eating, travelling, and hanging out with friends. The grant majority of fashion influencers are female.
Study 2 was a content analysis, focusing on the presence of the above-mentioned characteristics in the posts by fashion influencers on Instagram, in order to say
something about the possible effects that following fashion influencers could have on the users of Instagram. This knowledge can contribute to parents’, teachers’ and experts’ current knowledge about the effects of Instagram use particularly in the light of fashion influencers. Besides, possible findings of the content analysis can help interpret the results of the forgoing studies on the effects of Instagram and following Instagram-influencers in a more advanced way.
The definition of ‘influencer’ in the Cambridge Dictionary is as follows:
“someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave, for example through their use of social media” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). Influencers can occur as
multiple actors, e.g. friends, family, opinion leaders, celebrities. Social media influencers (SMIs) are a fairly new phenomenon, that are part of the creation and development of social media. SMIs are “a new type of independent third party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media.” (Freberg, Graham, McGaughey, & Freberg, 2011).
The research question that guided the content analysis was the following:
To what extent are those characteristics of Instagram posts that have negative effects on users’ body image according to the academic research evidence so far, present in present-day popular fashion-related Instagram accounts?
18 Based on the findings of Study 1 and theoretical background, the content analysis focused in particularly on establishing the presence of attractive people, thin-ideal women and fitspiration images in present-day, popular fashion-related Instagram accounts.
Below, the method section will elaborate on the sample, data gathering and codebook for the content analysis. Thereafter, the results of the content analysis will be discussed, followed by a conclusion.
Method
The current study was a content analysis, conducted on content from the image-based social media application Instagram. The reason this technique was chosen, was because of the aim of knowing the extent of the presence of certain characteristics in posts of popular fashion-related Instagram accounts. Content analysis is an objective and
systematic research technique, making it the most fitted to the research aim of this study (Bryman, 2012).
Sample
Only popular fashion influencers on Instagram, with a minimum of 100.000 followers, were included in the selection process of Instagram accounts. Within the selection of popular fashion influencers on Instagram there were certain criteria. First, the influencer had to be female. Second, the influencer had to come from the Netherlands or Belgium (Flanders). Third, the influencer had to have a clear focus on fashion and influencing others with their Instagram account. Fourth, ‘popular fashion influencer’ meant the individual had a minimum of 100.000 followers and a maximum of 1.000.000 followers on their personal account, at the time of data gathering. This classifies as a
macro-19 influencer, according to Möller (2018). Fifth, the influencer had to post in either Dutch or English. Sixth and last the Instagram accounts must not have been private but accessible to anyone.
In order to make an as complete as possible list of influencers that meet these criteria, several search techniques were applied. First, a Google search was done [e.g. “Dutch macro influencers on Instagram”]. Second, own knowledge on Dutch and Belgian fashion influencers was applied. Third, because influencers tend to have reciprocal relationships with other influencers (Kim, Han, Yoo, & Gerla, 2017),
befriended influencers from suitable Dutch and Belgian macro fashion influencers were researched.
After applying these criteria, a list of 30 suitable fashion influencers was
composed. With the use of systematic sampling, ten influencers were randomly selected from this list. A full list of the ten influencers can be found in Table 2. Data were
gathered from this list of ten influencers.
Data gathering
All Instagram posts of the ten influencers were gathered over a time period of two weeks, namely one week in October 2018 (Monday 8th of October 2018 up to and including 14th of October 2018) and one week in March 2019 (Monday 4th of March
2019 up to and including Sunday 10th of March 2019). These two time periods were chosen because they both had the availability of seven days without holidays, which therefore presents daily behavior. Two separate weeks in the year were chosen in order to be able to exclude possible results that are linked to one specific period in the year.
Screenshots from each of the posts on the influencers’ accounts within the chosen time periods were taken. The posts were separately screenshotted and kept in a private
20 file. On those screenshots the following information was always seen: name of
influencer, image, number of likes, and number of comments. Additionally, the screenshots sometimes contained the following information: caption, hashtags, brand tags, Instagram user tags, location. Only posts that contained images were screenshotted and added to the files, videos were not included.
Codebook
The full codebook can be found in Appendix B. Since the coding focused in particular on the presence of attractive people, thin-ideal women and fitspiration images in the Instagram posts, below the coding of these three elements is described in more detail:
Attractive people
The first coding characteristic was ‘attractive people’, of which there are a lot of different definitions that can be used to operationalize. In the present study, attractive people was operationalized based on a study by Ohanian (1990). It was measured by five aspects of ‘attractiveness’: attractive (versus unattractive), classy (versus not classy), beautiful (versus ugly), elegant (versus plain), and sexy (versus not sexy). The Codebook, that can be seen in Appendix B, provided instructions on how those five aspects could be recognized.
The eventual score for each post could vary between 0 and 5 points, with 0 meaning that none of the aspects of attractiveness was present in the post and a score of 5 meaning all aspects of attractiveness were present.
Thin-ideal women
Research by Johnson, Tobin and Steinberg (1989) showed that there is an idealized feminine body type in current society. This consists of women that are tall, have narrow hips, long legs
21 and thin thighs. Schaefer and colleagues (2015) describe the thin-ideal as follows: women that have a slender, feminine physique with a small waist and little body fat. Ahern, Bennett, Kelly, & Hetherinton (2011) and Thompson and colleagues (1999) state (as cited in Schaefer et al., 2015): “Within Westernized cultures, the "thin-ideal," which denotes a thin or slender figure with low body fat and a toned physique, is the dominant appearance ideal for women”. By merging those definitions of thin-ideal women, a definition consisting the mentioned characteristics of ‘thin-ideal women’ was construed. This resulted in the following description of ‘thin-ideal women in Westernized cultures’: women that are thin or slender, have narrow hips, a small waist, little body fat, and toned physique (Ahern et al., 2011; Johnson et al., 1989; Schaefer et al., 2015; Thompson et al., 1999). The characteristic ‘thin-ideal women’ was operationalized by measuring if a person in the Instagram post had the following: thin/slender, narrow hips, small waist, low body fat, and toned physique (see Codebook: Appendix B).
The eventual score could vary between 0 and 5 points, with 0 meaning that none of the aspects of thin-ideal people were present in the posts and a score of 5 meaning all aspects of thin-ideal were present.
Fitspiration
The third and last characteristic, fitspiration images, was operationalized with the use of research by Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2018). They conducted a content analysis on
fitspiration images and created a fitspiration imagery measure. The variables they measured for ‘fitspiration imagery’, and were measured in the present study were the following: category (the main category present in the post: people, food or other), food (unhealthy or healthy food), gender (male, female or both), adiposity (physical build of a person), muscularity, action (what action was the person in the image carrying out), objectification
22 (presence or absence of objectification). The Codebook (see Appendix B) included a list of instructions and examples for each of these characteristics.
The eventual score could vary between 0 and 1, with 0 meaning that none of the aspects of fitspiration were present in the post and a score of 1 meaning that all aspects of fitspiration images were present.
Coder reliability
The coding was conducted by the author. In order to establish the intracoder-reliability, a sub-set of the sample was coded twice. To calculate intracoder-reliability, the sub-sub-set coded twice must be at least 10 percent of the sample, therefore this sub-set of 25 percent met the
requirement to calculate the intra-coder reliability with Krippendorf’s Alpha. This generated 22 posts that were coded both the first time (T1) and the second time (T2). With the use of a random generator program, number 2 was generated as the starting point of the sample. Thereafter, every 8th number was selected.
Intracoder-reliability was tested using Krippendorff’s Alpha, in which sample size or missing data are not problematic and all measurement levels can be tested (Hayes &
Krippendorff, 2007). There was a good intracoder-reliability in this study: Krippendorff’s Alpha showed a value of .97 (see Appendix C).
Results
First, the characteristics of influencers and their accounts will be discussed. Second, the presence of the three characteristics ‘attractive people’, ‘thin-ideal women’, and ‘fitspiration images’ in the fashion influencers’ posts will be discussed. Third and final, the differences between the characteristics in presence in posts and the correlation of the three characteristics with users’ likes and comments will be elaborated.
23
Characteristics of influencers
There were ten Instagram fashion influencers included in the sample (see Appendix D). They were all women, were all active during the time of the study, had an open account and posted in either Dutch or English. The characteristics of the Instagram accounts of the fashion influencers are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2.
Characteristics of influencers
Name Instagram name Followers (May 2019) Posts March 2019 Posts October 2018 Average likes per post Average comments per post Maria @the_beauty_issue 152.000 0 2 3187,5 31,5 Lizzy van der Ligt @lizzyvdligt 287.000 7 6 6925,23 84,92 Anna Nooshin @annanooshin 870.000 5 7 62275 345,58 Frederique Bos @fablefrique 110.000 5 2 1893,29 82,14 Lima Ché @limaswardrobe 280.000 4 4 7626,38 166,75 Kae Sutherland @kaesutherland 150.000 4 6 10620,9 135,9 Nemi Dupuis @dutch.blend 168.000 1 3 14775 101,25 Dominique Candido @dominique_candido 200.000 1 4 3113,2 31,2 Naomi Avrahami @naomiavrahami 117.000 4 5 10961,11 225,56 Benthe Marlene Mey Liem @bentheliem 251.000 12 6 6901,17 126,83
Average of all influencers 171500 4,3 4,5 12826,98 130,16
24 At the time of the study, Anna Nooshin was the most popular fashion influencer on
Instagram, and Frederique Bos was the least popular fashion influencer on Instagram in the sample of ten influencers, based on the number of followers. The highest average of number of likes per post was received by Naomi Avrahami. Anna Nooshin received the most
comments per post on average, in this sample. Benthe Marlene Mey Liem was the most active on Instagram in March 2019 with a total of twelve posts and Maria posted the least images, with zero images posted in March 2019. In October 2018, Anna Nooshin was the most active with 7 posts and Frederique Bos and Maria were both the least active on Instagram with 2 images posted each, in the sample of ten influencers.
Attractive people, thin-ideal women, and fitspiration images
In order to check to what extent the three characteristics of attractive people, thin-ideal
women and fitspiration images were part of one underlying phenomenon, or ‘latent construct’, the correlations between the three characteristics were analyzed. When statistically significant correlations are found, this means that there was one type of Instagram post, which was always a combination of the three characteristics. The correlations between the three characteristics, attractive people, thin-ideal women and fitspiration images, were not significant (see Table 3). In other words, the three characteristics were not part of one phenomenon in the Instagram posts, but they are largely independent phenomena that could be present in the fashion influencers’ Instagram posts.
The first characteristic, attractive people, could have been present in 81 posts (N = 81). Of these posts the majority of posts in this study contained attractive people (n = 74, 81,4%). After recoding the variable for comparison, the score could vary between 0 and 1 point, with 0 meaning least attractive person and 5 the most attractive person. The variable had an average mean of .91 (SD = .28), which shows that of the posts that contained people, the majority of people in the posts were as highly attractive.
25 The second characteristics, thin-ideal women, could also have been present in 81 posts (N = 81). Almost half of the posts were coded as containing ‘thin-ideal women’ (n = 44, 49.9%). After recoding, the score of the variable could vary between 0 and 1 point, with 0 meaning least aspects of thin-ideal women present and 1 all aspects of thin-ideal women present. The average mean of the variable was .54 (SD = .5), meaning that in an average post about half of the aspects that define thin-ideal women were present.
The last characteristic, fitspiration images, was almost absent in the 80 posts (N = 80): only four of the 80 posts contained fitspiration images (n = 4, 4.5%), and the mean was .05 (SD = .22) on a scale whereby the minimum score of this variable was 0 (none of the aspects of fitspiration present) and the maximum score was 1 (all aspects of fitspiration present).
Table 3.
Correlations
Followers Likes Comments Attractive people Thin-ideal women Fitspiration images N 88 88 88 81 81 80 Followers Likes .87** Comments .56** .80** Attractive people -.16 -.05 .11 Thin-ideal women .19 .18 .26* .07 Fitspiration .27* .29** .18 -.15 .21 Note. * p <.05, ** p <.01.
Differences between attractive people, thin-ideal women, and fitspiration images
In order to test if there was a difference in presence between posts with attractive people, thin-ideal women and fitspiration images, a series of paired samples t-test was conducted. The first difference that was tested was between attractive people (M = .91, SD = .28) and thin-ideal women (M = .54, SD = .5), with a mean difference of .37 (SD = .56). The difference in
26 presence of attractive people and thin-ideal women was significant, t (80) = 5.98, p < .001, 95% CI [.25, .49]. In other words, the people in the Instagram posts were significantly more attractive than meeting the thin-ideal.
The mean of thin-ideal women (M = .55, SD = .5) was higher than the mean of fitspiration images (M = .05, SD = .22). The mean difference between the two variables was .5 (SD = .5). The difference was significant, which means that there was a difference in presence of thin-ideal women and fitspiration images in posts on Instagram, of which
presence of thin-ideal women in posts was higher, t (79) = 8.88, p < .001, 95% CI [.39, .61]. The last comparison was between fitspiration images and attractive people. The mean of fitspiration images (M = .05, SD = .22) was lower than the mean of attractive people (M = .93, SD = .27). The mean difference between the two variables was (M = -.86, SD = .37). There was a significant difference between the two variables, which means that fitspiration images were less present in posts than attractive people, t (79) = -21.22 p < .001, 95% CI [-.96, -.79].
Summarizing, the people that were present in the posts posted by fashion influencers on Instagram were more likely to be attractive people, than that the women were conform the thin-ideal. Additionally, there were more thin-ideal women present than there were
fitspiration images present in posts of fashion influencers on Instagram. Last, the posts that were posted on Instagram by fashion influencers were more likely to contain attractive people than they contained aspects of fitspiration images.
Comments and likes
In addition to analyzing the presence of the characteristics in the posts, the connection between the three characteristics and the comments and likes a post receives was analyzed. This has been done to provide insight into the extent the followers react to the presence of the
27 three characteristics in Instagram posts. Table 3 gives an overview of the correlations. The analysis showed a significant correlation between comments and thin-ideal women, r = .26, p = .021, which means that a post that contained thin-ideal women, received more user
comments. There was also a significant correlation between likes and fitspiration images: when a post received more likes, the presence of fitspiration image in the post was more likely, r = .29, p = .01.
In all, fashion influencer posts that contain thin-ideal women trigger comments of Instagram users. Next to that, Instagram users reacted positively to fitspiration images in posts on Instagram and liked the post more. On the other hand, there were no correlations between attractive people and likes or comments.
Conclusion
The aim of this study was to map the presence of the characteristics ‘attractive people’, ‘thin-ideal women’ and ‘fitspiration images’ on present-day popular fashion-related Instagram accounts, which can have negative effects on users’ body image according to academic research evidence. The majority of posts on popular Dutch/Belgian fashion-related Instagram accounts were found to contain attractive people and thin-ideal women. However, fitspiration images were not highly present in posts by fashion influencers on Instagram.
There are a few limitations to this study that have to be kept in mind while looking at the content analysis results. First, content analysis is a descriptive method which means it only describes the extent of the presence or absence of the variables researched. Therefore, nothing can be said about the fashion influencers’ underlying motives for placing these posts. Second, the posts that were selected for the sample are derived from a sample of ten fashion influencers, which is a restricted sample. Third limitation to keep in mind, is the choice for macro influencers. There are four more levels of influencers: nano, micro, meso, and mega.
28 Future research might use all levels of influencers, in order to compare the content of the posts of these influencers with those of the influencers in the present sample and find possible differences between them. Fourth, the posts that were selected for the sample were all from fashion influencers. There are far more types of influencers on Instagram. Choosing, for example, travel influencers or food influencers might have generated different findings. The fifth and last limitation of this study regards the coding. The posts were coded by one coder, with a sub-set of the sample being coded at two different times. Even though the test showed a strong intra-coder reliability, having multiple coders could have benefited the reliability of the research.
In the overarching conclusion below, the findings from the literature study (Study 1) and the findings from the content analysis (Study 2) will be merged. By doing so, the overarching aim of this study, to map what characteristics have negative effects and to what extent those characteristics are present in present-day popular fashion influencers’ Instagram accounts, will be addressed.
General conclusion
The overarching aim of this study was to map what characteristics of Instagram posts have negative effects on Instagram users’ body image, and to what extent those characteristics are present in present-day popular fashion-related Instagram accounts. First, the research focus and conclusion of the literature review will be dis cussed. Second, the research focus and conclusion of the content analysis will be discussed. Following, the results will be merged and limitations of the studies will be discussed, in order to answer the overarching research question of this study.
The first research focus was on identifying what characteristics of Instagram posts can have negative effects on users’ body image according to the academic research evidence so
29 far. Findings showed that there are in particular three characteristics that can have negative effects on users’ body image, according to academic research evidence so far. These three characteristics are: attractive people, thin-ideal women, and fitspiration images. These three characteristics can have negative effects on body dissatisfaction and self-esteem of users. Zooming in on the three characteristics, the following four studies showed their negative effects. Research by Brown and Tiggemann (2016) and by Tiggemann and Barbato (2018) showed that images on Instagram with attractive people can have negative effects on body image and lead to body dissatisfaction. Being exposed to images with thin-ideal women can lead to body dissatisfaction (Tiggemann et al., 2018). Viewing fitspiration imagery on Instagram can have negative effects on body image (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). More generally, the findings of the literature study showed that exposure to one of the three characteristics on Instagram can have negative effects on body image.
The second study focused on the presence of characteristics in Instagram posts that can have negative effects on users’ body image, in present-day popular fashion-related Instagram accounts in the Netherlands and Belgium. The content analysis of posts by fashion influencers on Instagram presented clear findings on the presence of the characteristics. First, it was shown that the three characteristics are not part of one underlying latent construct, but are separate phenomena in the Instagram posts. It was also shown that the posts posted by fashion influencers on Instagram are more likely to contain attractive people than thin-ideal women being present in the posts. Also, compared to the presence of fitspiration images, thin-ideal women and attractive people were present more in the posts that fashion influencers posted on Instagram. Finally, it was found that when a post contained a thin-ideal woman, this post received more comments. Also, when a post received more likes, the presence of
fitspiration image in the post was more likely. This suggests that followers react to the presence of thin-ideal women and fitspiration images. Mind however that in order to say
30 something about the comments having a positive or negative tone, additional research must be carried out.
Both the studies have their individual limitations that have to be kept in mind while interpreting the results. Besides those limitations, there are a few limitations to merging two studies. First, the characteristics that were identified in Study 1 can differ from the
characteristics in Study 2. That is, it might be that the operationalization of the characteristics in the codebook in the content analysis, deviated from the operationalization of the
characteristics found in the literature in Study 1. In the majority of the literature found in Study 1, attractiveness was rated by the conduct of a pilot study in which coders rated the person in an Instagram post as more attractive or less attractive. However, it often did not state how attractiveness was operationalized. Therefore, it is possible that attractiveness was measured or manipulated in another way than was done in the present study. Because of the lack of knowledge on the operationalization of attractiveness in the literature in Study 1, generalizing findings must be done with care.
Second, because of a limited time period in which the two studies had to be conducted, both the studies had to be scaled down. This resulted in a smaller literature search that did not include research published in journals that are not ranked in the Web of Science database, and a smaller sample in the content analysis.
Third, both the literature study and the content analysis had a focus on Instagram, therefore generalizing the findings to other image-based social networking sites must be done with care. The best platform to generalize the findings to is Tumblr, because this is also an image-based social media platform with a focus on image sharing with your network and the possibility of following others and getting followers. Pinterest is also an image-based social network site, that allows its users to share images with others. It differs from Instagram, because the main purpose of Pinterest is for its users to discover new interests by visually
31 sharing images. The findings of this study are less generalizable to other popular social
networking sites that are not solely image-based, like Facebook and Twitter. These social networking sites do contain images and image activities (e.g. posting photos, viewing friends’ photos), but because the focus is also textual, the results found in the present study may be less applicable.
Despite the limitations of both the literature study and the content analysis, this study supports the concern of parents, teachers and experts about potential negative effects of the use of Instagram by young people on their body image. Merging the findings of Study 1 and Study 2, showed that, when Instagram users follow fashion influencers, this means they are being exposed to attractive people and thin-ideal women quite often, which can lead to negative effects on body image and increased body dissatisfaction (Levine & Murnen, 2009; Want, 2009).
It must be kept in mind that the extent to which using Instagram and following fashion influencers can have negative effects on user’s body image, can differ. This could depend on the motive an individual has to use Instagram. Using Instagram for self-enhancement could possibly have a less negative effect than using Instagram for social comparison (Lee et al., 2015; Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). In addition to that, the amount of social comparing of an individual (Festinger, 1954) and the current level of body satisfaction a women has (Want, 2009), are also likely to play a role in the extent to which using Instagram and following fashion influencers has negative effects on the users’ body image. Therefore, in future
research these factors could be included to study their possible mediating or moderating roles in the relationship between Instagram use and body image. This study provides a useful starting point for future research on the consequences of using Instagram, or more generally using social networking sites.
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