The “ideal versus real” social media posts increase female adults’ body appreciation

Social media is saturated with idealized body image-related content that may negatively affect viewers’ body image. However, the “ideal vs. real” trend may have more positive effects by simultaneously showing idealized and unedited (realistic) counterparts of the same content. This study tested whether the “ideal vs. real” effect on body appreciation may be observed both for Instagram and TikTok content. In a mixed-design online experiment, female adults (N = 265; M_age = 20.72) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: 1) idealized pictures; 2) idealized videos; 3) “ideal vs. real” pictures; 4) “ideal vs. real” videos. State body appreciation was measured before and after viewing social media posts. Medium modality (picture vs. video) and participants’ Body Mass Index (BMI) were tested as moderators. As expected, we found an increased state body appreciation after exposure to “ideal vs. real” social media content. Surprisingly, we also observed a small increase in state body appreciation after viewing idealized social media content. Further, moderating effects of the medium type or BMI were not found. These findings suggested that exposure to “ideal vs. real” social media content may temporarily increase body appreciation, regardless of the social media format or participants’ BMI.