The Indirect Effects of Thinspiration and Fitspiration Images on Young Women’s Sexual Attitudes

Abstract

Applying the sociocultural theory and the objectification theory, this experiment examined the indirect effects of inspirational Instagram images (i.e., fitspiration and thinspiration) on young women’s sexual attitudes. A post-test only between-subjects design with three experimental conditions (i.e., fitspiration, thinspiration, and control images) was conducted with female college students (N = 221). The results supported the sociocultural theory, revealing that viewing inspirational Instagram images led to higher appearance comparison and greater body dissatisfaction, respectively, which, in turn, predicted lower sexual self-efficacy and greater sexual self-consciousness. Testing a new theoretical model combining the sociocultural theory components and self-objectification reported a significant causal mediating chain of appearance comparison, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction, respectively, in the relationship between viewing inspirational Instagram images and sexual attitudes (i.e., lower sexual self-efficacy and greater sexual self-consciousness). The indirect effect sizes of fitspiration were larger than those of thinspiration. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Keywords

fitspiration thinspiration Instagram body image sexual attitudes

The effects of inspirational Instagram images (i.e., “fitspiration” and “thinspiration”) on body image (Griffiths et al., 2018) and the relationships between body image and sexual attitudes among young women (Blashill & Safren, 2015) have been documented. The bulk of this research, however, has been conducted separately. Thus, the effects of inspirational Instagram images on women’s sexual attitudes via the mediation of body image have rarely been explored.

Theoretical concepts support media effects on body image. Sociocultural models posited that exposure to inspirational Instagram images might influence appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction, respectively (Rodgers et al., 2015). Research applying the objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) mentioned the effects of exposure to inspirational Instagram images on ideal body internalization and self-objectification (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018). Body dissatisfaction and self-objectification were found to predict young women’s sexual attitudes (Blashill & Safren, 2015; Claudat & Warren, 2014).

Although body dissatisfaction and self-objectification seemed to mediate the relationship between exposure to inspirational Instagram images and young women’s sexual attitudes, little research has explored those indirect effects. The current study examined the influences of inspirational Instagram images on young women’s sexual attitudes (i.e., sexual self-efficacy, sexual self-consciousness, and sexual initiation assertiveness) and the mediating roles of variables informed by the sociocultural theory and the objectification theory.

Literature Review

#Fitspiration, #Thinspiration, and Body Image

Thinspiration and fitspiration are inspirational social media content that encourages individuals to attain a specific body type and lifestyle (Talbot et al., 2017). Thinspiration is the combination of the word “thinness” and “inspiration,” and fitspiration is the amalgamation of the word “fitness” and “inspiration” (Griffiths et al., 2018). Thinspiration and fitspiration are popular hashtags on visual social media platforms, including Instagram, which specifically focuses on imagery and photo sharing (Griffiths et al., 2018). Instagram has more than 106 million active American users (eMarketer, 2019) with 62% young adults (aged 18–34) (NapoleonCat, 2019a); 56.4% females; and 43.6% males (NapoleonCat, 2019b).

Thinspiration originated from the thin ideal, which has been portrayed as the beauty standard of women by mainstream media for decades (Betz & Ramsey, 2017). After the arrival of new media, the thin ideal has become prevalent online and appeared under several names, including thinspiration (Betz & Ramsey, 2017). Thinspiration content on Instagram portrays skinny women with motivation quotes about weight loss and food guilt messages (Talbot et al., 2017). A content analysis of 800 Thinspiration images on Instagram found that the hashtag supported pro-anorexic lifestyles, encouraged users to find weight-loss buddies, and motivated users to discriminate against outsiders by arguing with recovered anorexics (Marcus, 2016). Exposure to thinspiration images predicted adverse outcomes, such as unhealthy appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction (Griffiths et al., 2018).

Recently, fitspiration became popular as an alternative trend that promotes a healthier lifestyle, such as regular exercising and having healthy food choices (Holland & Tiggemann, 2017). A content analysis of fitspiration pictures on Instagram revealed that nearly 90% of the bodies were coded as having low body fat, and more than 50% were coded as muscular (Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018). Despite the seemingly healthy concept of fitspiration, most images contained only one body type: thin and toned (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). Fitspiration content includes texts such as inspirational quotes encouraging users to exercise and eat in a specific way (e.g., having protein-based food) to attain a fit and thin body (Griffiths et al., 2018). A content analysis comparing fitspiration and thinspiration content across online media platforms found similarities among the content regarding eating restriction, fat stigmatization, and objectification of female bodies (Boepple et al., 2016).

Scholars suggested that the fitspiration body may be harder to attain than the thinspiration body (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). Although fitspiration promotes exercising and healthy eating, the ideas are for an appearance rather than a health purpose (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). Some individuals may work out regularly, but exercising to attain a toned and thin body with defined muscles like fitspiration figures requires hard work and dietary limitations (Cotter et al., 2017). Women may feel inadequate and are negatively impacted by the fitspiration idea, especially if they try to live the fitspiration lifestyle but did not attain the fitspiration body (Holland & Tiggemann, 2017). An experiment reported that exposure to the fit ideal significantly led to a higher level of body dissatisfaction than the thin ideal and the curvy ideal (featuring overweight women) among college females (Betz & Ramsey, 2017).

Fitspiration and thinspiration studies tend to examine the effects of the visuals relative to texts (e.g., inspirational Instagram quotes). Research has suggested that the visual aspect of social media sites more influenced users’ body image than the textual aspect (Mabe et al., 2014). Visualized social media platforms allow users to manage their physical impression by selecting to post only the most attractive pictures of themselves (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). Using the hashtag function, users can easily share and search for idealized media images, which allow them to visually estimate the media figures’ body shape relative to their own (Mabe et al., 2014). The current research aimed to examine the relationship between viewing inspirational Instagram content and young women’s sexual attitudes, which is a relatively new topic. To potentially find the effects, we focused on the visual aspect of inspirational Instagram content, of which the effects have been more documented relative to the textual aspect.

Sociocultural Theory

A meta-analysis revealed that sociocultural models had been extensively applied to explain the effects of idealized media images on women’s body image (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). A sociocultural theory such as the tripartite influenced model (Thompson et al., 1999) proposed that exposure to sociocultural agents including media predicted body dissatisfaction: a negative feeling that occurs when one perceives a discrepancy between their physical appearance and the ideal body (Rodgers et al., 2015; Thompson et al., 1999). Body dissatisfaction tends to occur among women relative to men; women naturally more aspire to unrealistic media images but mostly fail to obtain the body type (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). Compared to sociocultural factors such as peers and parents, viewing media explained a larger variance of body dissatisfaction (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016).

The sociocultural theory stated that exposure to idealized media images and body dissatisfaction could be explained by appearance comparison (Rodgers et al., 2015). Appearance comparison is developed from the concept of social comparison (Festinger, 1954), which proposed that individuals evaluate their opinions, abilities, and social status by comparing those aspects with others. Based on the social comparison concept, body image researchers have posited that individuals, especially women, are likely to compare their physical appearance with others as an aspect of the self-evaluation (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). Comparing oneself with media figures tends to be an upward comparison, resulting in body dissatisfaction and adverse health issues (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016).

Appearance comparison is thought to be more pronounced on social media than traditional media (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018). As anyone with internet access can use social media, individuals have opportunities for fast and numerous appearance comparisons with social media figures anytime they are online (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018). Social media also allow people to be friends with others who are like-minded and have similar social status (Slater & Tiggemann, 2015). The social media function may increase appearance comparison because individuals tend to compare themselves with perceived similar more than different targets (Festinger, 1954). The sociocultural theory posited that appearance comparison mediated the relationship between media use and body dissatisfaction (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018). Applying the sociocultural theory in the Instagram context, we tested the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Exposure to inspirational Instagram images (i.e., fitspiration and thinspiration) predicts greater state body dissatisfaction via the mediation of greater state appearance comparison relative to exposure to the control images.

Objectification Theory

In addition to sociocultural theory, a meta-analysis (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016) revealed that the objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) had been commonly applied to explain media effects on body image. In Western countries, female bodies are socially constructed as objects to be gazed and evaluated (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018). Media tend to portray female bodies in a sexualized way, such as the portrayal of women in sexual poses selling products or the depiction of a sexualized body part (e.g., breast or legs) in separation from the rest of the female body (Zurbriggen et al., 2011). Media objectification of female bodies leads women to have ideal body internalization: the endorsement and acceptance of media figures’ physical aspects and the thought to modify one’s behavior to attain the ideal (Rodgers et al., 2015).

Ideal body internalization may result in females’ self-objectification, which refers to a perception that one’s body is an object to be evaluated and a routine monitor of one’s physical appearance at the conscious level (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). When self-objectification occurs, women may have attentional biases towards how her body appears to others rather than how she feels or how she can use the body to benefit her daily-life functioning (Zurbriggen et al., 2011). Self-objectification may be particularly pronounced on visualized social media because the technology is commonly used for constructing and managing one’s self-representation and physical appearance (Slater & Tiggemann, 2015). Compared to men, women are more depicted via aesthetically pleasing pictures, such as photos in which women wear revealing attires (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018). Viewing those pictures, young women may internalize the ideal body and objectify themselves by constantly introspecting their physical traits that do not meet the idealized figures (Feltman & Szymanski, 2018).

A content analysis of fitspiration and thinspiration images on visualized social media sites revealed that both types of images are sexually suggestive, emphasizing the pelvis and abdomen of women (Alberga et al., 2018; Ghaznavi & Taylor, 2015). Compared to thinspiration, fitspiration was scored higher on being sexually objectified content (Boepple et al., 2016; Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018). Thus, it seems imperative to apply the objectification theory to examine the effects of inspirational Instagram images on women’s body image in the current study.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Exposure to inspirational Instagram images predicts greater state self-objectification via the mediation of greater state ideal body internalization relative to exposure to the control images.

As mentioned previously, a content analysis suggested that fitspiration may lead to stronger effects on body image relative to thinspiration (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). We examined the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): (a) The indirect effects of fitspiration on state body dissatisfaction via state appearance comparison in H1 and (b) the indirect effects of fitspiration on state self-objectification via state ideal body internalization in H2 are larger than the indirect effects of thinspiration.

Body Dissatisfaction and Young Women’s Sexual Attitudes

In the U.S., the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is high, with more than two million people having an STI (CDC, 2018a). STIs greater impact women than men for several reasons, such as female anatomy, lack of symptoms in women, and long-term health complications (CDC, 2018a). U.S. women aged 15 to 24 years old are three times more likely to have a chlamydia infection than males of the same age (CDC, 2018b). Despite the high prevalence, only 18% of young females (aged 15–44 years) reported using a condom during sexual intercourse every time within one month (CDC, 2018a). Because of the low rate of safe sex practices and a high prevalence rate of STIs among women, identifying risk factors for poor sexual attitudes is crucial, and research has pointed out negative body image as a potential risk factor (Blashill & Safren, 2015). Risky sexual attitudes that are associated with young women’s body image commonly include, but are not limited to, sexual self-efficacy (Blashill & Safren, 2015), sexual initiation assertiveness (Auslander et al., 2012), and sexual self-consciousness (Claudat & Warren, 2014; Wiederman, 2000).

Sexual self-efficacy refers to one’s ability to practice safe sex under challenging situations and includes several facets: efficacy in communication with partners about safe sex preferences, efficacy in refusing unwanted sex, and efficacy in buying and using condoms (Blashill & Safren, 2015). Studies have suggested that body dissatisfaction is an essential predictor of young women’s low sexual self-efficacy (Blashill & Safren, 2015). In the context of physical intimacy where exposed bodies are typically emphasized, women with body dissatisfaction tend to experience anxiety and fear of being rejected if they negotiate with their partners about condom use or refuse unwanted sex (Rosenthal et al., 2012).

Sexual initiation assertiveness is one’s ability to initiate sexual behaviors and communicate sexual needs with a partner (Auslander et al., 2012). Sexual initiation assertiveness is an indicator of an individual’s power to practice safe sex, gain sexual satisfaction, and decrease the risk of sexual victimization among college women (Kelley et al., 2016; Manago et al., 2015). Studies showed that young women with high body dissatisfaction reported low sexual initiation assertiveness, whereas those with low body dissatisfaction reported greater assertiveness in initiating and practicing safe sex (Manago et al., 2015). Low sexual initiation assertiveness is related to unwillingness to engage in sexual activities and experiences of coercive sexual intercourse among college women (Darden et al., 2018).

Sexual self-consciousness refers to one’s sense of heightened awareness about how they appear to a partner during physical intimacy (Wiederman, 2000). The construct is associated with one’s discomfort when experiencing sex, which might occur from the person’s negative evaluations of the self and tends to occur among women more than men (Claudat & Warren, 2014). During sex, rather than focusing on one’s sexual pleasure, an individual with high sexual self-consciousness tends to focus on sexually irrelevant tasks such as a partner’s impression towards them (Claudat & Warren, 2014). The cognitive function may lead to dissociation from physical intimacy and sexual dissatisfaction (Claudat & Warren, 2014). Body dissatisfaction among young women is related to high sexual self-consciousness regardless of romantic relationship satisfaction (Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2014).

In conclusion, media effects on body image research has documented the influences of inspirational Instagram images on body dissatisfaction via appearance comparison (Rodgers et al., 2015). Sexual health literature has revealed the correlations between body dissatisfaction and sexual attitudes (Blashill & Safren, 2015). To connect the two areas of literature, we tested the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Exposure to inspirational Instagram images predicts young women’s lower sexual self-efficacy, greater sexual self-consciousness, and lower sexual initiation assertiveness via the causal mediation of higher state appearance comparison and greater state body dissatisfaction relative to the control group.

Self-Objectification and Females’ Sexual Attitudes

Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) proposed the concept of self-objectification and predicted that the construct might lead to impaired sexual satisfaction. Little research, nonetheless, has been devoted to examining the correlation between self-objectification and young women’s sexual attitudes. Only a few studies have documented the relationship between self-objectification and sexual initiation assertiveness. One cross-sectional study in emerging adults reported a positive correlation between high self-objectification and delayed sexual initiation assertiveness even when self-esteem was taken into account (Gramsas, 2014). Another study in adult females (aged 18–40) (Grower & Ward, 2018) argued that high self-objectification is associated with low sexual initiation assertiveness.

To our knowledge, the influence of self-objectification on sexual self-consciousness has not been documented, although studies have found the relationships between variables that are closely correlated with self-objectification, such as body shame (Grower & Ward, 2018; Zurbriggen et al., 2011), and sexual self-consciousness (Claudat & Warren, 2014). The relationship between self-objectification and sexual self-consciousness seems to be possible because a third-person perspective of one’s physical appearance (i.e., self-objectification) may interfere with attention towards sexual activities (i.e., sexual self-consciousness) (Zurbriggen et al., 2011).

Regarding sexual self-efficacy, a cross-sectional study with female undergraduates revealed that higher self-objectification predicted lower sexual self-efficacy, which, in turn, predicted disordered eating and risky sexual behaviors (Higgins, 2019). A study with women aged 18 to 40 reported the negative association between self-objectification and sexual self-efficacy related to condom use (Grower & Ward, 2018). However, the relationship became nonsignificant after body appreciation (not examined in the current study) was introduced (Grower & Ward, 2018).

According to the objectification theory, exposure to idealized media images leads to ideal body internalization, which, in turn, predicts state self-objectification. However, little research has explored the relationship between self-objectification and young women’s sexual attitudes. We examined the following research question to extend the existing literature.

Research Question 1 (RQ1): Relative to the control group, does exposure to inspirational Instagram images lead to young women’s lower sexual self-efficacy, higher sexual self-consciousness, and lower sexual initiation assertiveness via the causal mediation of state ideal body internalization and state self-objectification?

Finally, research documented the mediating role of appearance comparison in the relationship between Instagram use and self-objectification (Fardouly et al., 2017; Feltman & Szymanski, 2018) and the causal mediation of appearance comparison and self-objectification in the relationship between pressure from media and body dissatisfaction (Fitzsimmons-Craft et al., 2014). Our research proposed a new theoretical model to connect the sociocultural theory and the objectification theory in the context of young women’s sexual health. We aimed to examine the following research question:

Research Question 2 (RQ2): Relative to the control group, does exposure to inspirational Instagram images lead to young women’s lower sexual self-efficacy, greater sexual self-consciousness, and lower sexual initiation assertiveness via the causal mediation of state appearance comparison, state self-objectification, and state body dissatisfaction?

Method

Participants and Design

Participants were 221 female college students at a large public university. An online experiment was conducted using Qualtrics and employed a post-test only between-subjects design. Participants accessed the survey from their own electronic devices (e.g., laptops or cellphones) based on their convenience. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (a) exposure to 10 scenery images (a control group) (n = 65); (b) exposure to 10 fitspiration images (n = 79); and (c) exposure to 10 thinspiration images (n = 77). Within each group, participants were asked to view the images in Qualtrics and then fill out an online questionnaire measuring their body image, sexual attitudes, and demographic information. Participation lasted up to 25 min. Participants may receive extra course credits as incentives depending on the instructor’s consideration for each class that we distributed the survey.

Selection of the Initial Image Pool

An initial pool of fitspiration and thinspiration images was created to test the reliability of potential experimental stimuli. The hashtags “fitspiration” and “thinspiration” were used to source 80 images (40 images per hashtag) from public Instagram accounts. Because Instagram restricted the thinspiration hashtag at the time of the study (June 2018), Instagram did not display the most recent thinspiration images, although old images were still provided. We, thus, selected existing thinspiration pictures even though those were not up to date.

To increase the ecological validity and to get more images, we used alternative hashtags (“thinspo” for thinspiration content and “fitspo” for fitspiration), suggested by previous studies (Alberga et al., 2018; Boepple et al., 2016). The sample of images was collected on 4 days over 2 weeks in June 2018. An online random number generator was used to provide four numbers within the range of 1 to 14 to generate 4 days for collecting the image sample. On each day, we used the main hashtags (“fitspiration” and “thinspiration”) to select five pictures per hashtag and the alternative hashtags (“thinspo” and “fitspo”) for the same process.

The pictures were selected based on the definitions suggested by content analyses of fitspiration (Boepple et al., 2016; Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018) and thinspiration (Boepple et al., 2016; Ghaznavi & Taylor, 2015). Images in the fitspiration group portrayed women: (a) engaging in exercise, (b) wearing active outfits, and (c) showing visible muscular parts (e.g., abdominal muscle and upper arms) and conforming a thin and toned shape. Thinspiration images demonstrated women: (a) having an extra-thin body (i.e., visibly low body mass index), (b) not wearing active attires, and (c) not performing any forms of exercise. Selected images for both thinspiration and fitspiration conditions contained elements of objectification such as visibly addressing a specific body part (e.g., abs or the pelvic area) and depicting women in revealing outfits to emphasize their body shape. Once inspirational Instagram pictures that match with the definitions were retrieved, we used the number of likes to select the top ten pictures for each experimental condition on each sampling day until we got 40 pictures per condition after the 4 days of sampling. The hashtag “beautiful scenery” was used to source the top ten popular pictures based on the number of likes for the control stimuli. The pictures display natural places and architecture and do not portray humans.

Final Images

An online survey was created to measure the visual quality and representativeness of the initial pool. The images were randomly assigned to 102 female undergraduates with each picture being rated by at least 25 people regarding its quality. T-test analyses indicated, compared to thinspiration images (M = 2.67, SD = 0.20), fitspiration images (M = 4.07, SD = 0.60) have higher scores on “being a good example of fitness,” t(11) = −7.04, p < .001. Thinspiration pictures were scored higher (M = 4.33, SD = 0.17) than fitspiration pictures (M = 3.83, SD = 0.19) on “being a good example of thinness,” t(18) = 6.22, p < .001. The visual quality is not significantly different across the inspirational Instagram image conditions, t(152) = −1.97, p = .68.

The top 10 pictures with the highest means and lowest standard deviations on the “good example of fitness” and the “good example of thinness” were used as actual experimental stimuli for the fitspiration and thinspiration group, respectively. Fake Instagram frames and profile names were created and applied to the final images in every condition to increase the ecological validity (See Supplemental Appendix A). Likes and comments were not displayed to prevent biases.

Measurement

State appearance comparison

Three items were applied from the Tendency Appearance Comparison Scale (Tiggemann & McGill, 2004) to measure a female’s tendency to compare her overall appearance (two items) and specific body parts (one item) to the Instagram models right after exposure to the images. An example item is “When viewing the Instagram posts, to what extent did you think about your appearance?” The response format is a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“none at all”) to 5 (“a great deal”) (α = .91).

State body dissatisfaction

Two visual analog scales (100 mm long for each) were applied to measure state body dissatisfaction (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). Participants dragged a small mark on the line to indicate their “right now” feeling. An example question is, “To what extent are you right now feeling dissatisfied with your weight.” The items were averaged with higher scores reflect greater body dissatisfaction. The Pearson’s correlation is 0.81.

State ideal body internalization

The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-4; Schaefer et al., 2016) was applied to measure the internalization of inspirational Instagram images. The scale consists of nine items with a 5-point Likert scale response option ranging from “definitely disagree” (coded as 1) to “definitely agree” (coded as 5). An example item includes, “Right now, I would like my body to look like the people on Instagram.” Scores were averaged to create a composite with higher scores indicating higher state ideal body internalization (α = .93).

State self-objectification

The Self-Objectification Questionnaire (SOQ) (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998) was used to assess state self-objectification. SOQ asks participants to rank how vital ten different aspects of their body are to their physical self-concept “right now.” Five of the items measure physical competence (e.g., energy level), whereas the other five assess physical appearance (e.g., weight). Participants were asked to give a score of 9 for the most important attribute and a score of 8 for the second-most important attribute, and so on. The lowest-rank attribute was given a score of zero. The summed scores of the competence-based items were subtracted from the summed scores of the appearance-based items to create the composite of state self-objectification. Total scores can range from −25 to 25 with higher scores indicating higher state self-objectification (α = .78).

Sexual self-efficacy

The Sexual Risk Behavior Beliefs and Self-Efficacy (SRBBS) scales (Basen-Engquist et al., 1999) were applied to measure one’s self-efficacy in practicing safe sex. The SRBBS contains nine items and is used to assess self-efficacy for communicating about condom use, buying and using condoms, and refusing sex. A shortened example item is “How sure are you that you could tell your partner you want to use condoms.” The response format is a 3-point scale ranging from “not sure at all” (coded as 1) to “totally sure” (coded as 3). The relevant items were averaged to attain a total score (α = .79).

Sexual initiation assertiveness

To measure females’ sexual initiation assertiveness, we applied the Initiation subscale of the Sexual Assertiveness Scale (Morokoff et al., 1997). The subscale assessed individuals’ ability to assertively communicate their interests and desires about sex with a regular sexual partner. The subscale consists of six items with the response options ranging from “extremely unlikely” (coded as 1) to “extremely likely” (coded as 5). An example item includes, “I begin sex with my partner if I want to.” Scores were summed to create the total score with higher scores indicating greater sexual initiation assertiveness (α = .81).

Sexual self-consciousness

The Sexual-Self Consciousness Scales (Van Lankveld et al., 2008) contained 12 items. The scales were used to assess individuals’ variability of self-consciousness, such as embarrassment and over-focus on irrelevant tasks, during sexual activities. An example item is “It takes quite some time to overcome my shyness in sexual situations.” The response options are a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (coded as 1) to “strongly agree” (coded as 5). The items’ scores were summed to create a composite with higher scores indicating greater sexual self-consciousness (α = .80).

Confounding Variables

Research has indicated that demographic variables (i.e., age and ethnicity), eating disorder history, and the current relationship status are significantly correlated with young women’s sexual attitudes (Higgins, 2019). Our correlational analysis indicated nonsignificant relationships between age and all sexual attitudes, and thus age was excluded. The significant confounding variables were entered as ethnicity (White/non-White), currently in a romantic relationship (yes/no), and ever being diagnosed with an eating disorder (yes/no) to increase the robustness of the mediation analysis in all hypothesized models. Macro PROCESS Version 3.2.01 automatically correlates covariates with every outcome variable. Explained variances in the mediators and sexual dependent variables, thus, accounted for the confounding variables.

Statistical Analysis

SPSS Version 24 for Windows was used for descriptive statistics, and correlational analyses and Macro PROCESS Version 3.2.01 was used for mediation analysis. Regression assumptions and influential outliers were assessed. No unduly outliers were detected, and every case was retained. Missing data was less than 1% and was not imputed. Mediation analyses were operated using the bootstrapping method with 5,000 iterations. The bootstrap confidence interval (CI) levels at 95% confirm significant indirect effects when the estimates do not contain zero.

Results

Manipulation and Randomization Checks

Regarding the manipulation check, results indicated that fitspiration images (M = 3.95, SD = 0.74) have higher scores on being a good example of fitness, t(154) = −10.34, p < .001, compared to thinspiration images (M = 2.61, SD = 0.88). Thinspiration pictures indicate higher scores (M = 4.18, SD = 0.76) on being a good example of thinness, t(147) = 4.53, p < .001, compared to fitspiration pictures (M = 3.55, SD = 0.11). No significant difference of thinspiration and fitspiration pictures on visual quality was found, t(152) = −1.97, p = .72.

For the randomization check, ANOVAs indicated that the three experimental groups did not differ in age, F(2, 218) = 0.80, p = .45, and BMI, F(2, 212) = 0.87, p = .44. Chi-square tests showed no significant difference in the romantic relationship status, χ²(2, N = 221) = 0.04, p = .98, and eating disorder history, χ²(2, N = 221) = 0.21, p = .90 across the experimental groups.

Descriptive Statistics

Female participants (N = 221) had an average age of 21 years (SD = 1.75). The majority was Caucasian (60.2%), followed by Asian (20.4%), Hispanic (6.8%), Black (2.5%), and others (10.4%). Mean BMI was 23.34 (SD = 4.94). Of participants, 61.1% reported having sex in the past 30 days; 96.4% are heterosexual; 50.2 % are currently in a romantic relationship. Supplemental Table 1 (Supplemental Appendix B) shows descriptive statistics and correlational analyses of the key variables.

H1: State appearance comparison mediates the indirect effects of inspirational Instagram images on state body dissatisfaction

Using PROCESS Model 4, 95% CI levels indicated the indirect effects of fitspiration (ab = 11.17, SE = 3.01) and thinspiration (ab = 9.22, SE = 2.75) were significant (fitspiration CI = [5.92, 17.59]; thinspiration CI = [4.44, 15.03]). None of total and direct effects were significant except the total effect of fitspiration pictures (c' = 13.61, SE = 5.09, p = .01). H1 is supported.

H2: Exposure to inspirational Instagram images predicts state self-objectification via the mediation of state ideal body internalization

Using PROCESS Model 4 showed nonsignificant indirect effects for both thinspiration and fitspiration. H2 is rejected.

H3: The Indirect effects of fitspiration in (a) H1 and (b) H2 are larger than those of thinspiration

Studies suggested using standardized indirect coefficients as the effect size measurement for mediation analysis is more independent from sample size and has greater decreased Type I errors than other methods (e.g., Kappa squared and unstandardized coefficients) (Miočević et al., 2018). Regarding H1, Supplemental Figure 1 (see Supplemental Appendix C) showed that the standardized coefficients of path a and path b for fitspiration images (path a x b = 0.36) are larger than those of thinspiration images (path a x b = 0.30). H2 is not significant, and, thus, the effect sizes were not calculated. Only H3a is supported.

H4: Viewing inspirational Instagram images predicts young women’s sexual attitudes via the mediation of state appearance comparison and state body dissatisfaction

A series of PROCESS Model 6 was applied to analyze serial mediation models with state appearance comparison as Mediator 1 and state body dissatisfaction as Mediator 2 (see Supplemental Figure 1). Using bootstrapping with 95% CI suggested that viewing fitspiration and thinspiration images significantly predicted lower sexual self-efficacy and greater sexual self-consciousness via the causal mediation of state appearance comparison and state body dissatisfaction relative to the control group. Exposure to fitspiration and thinspiration images significantly predicted greater sexual initiation assertiveness via only state appearance comparison. None of the total and direct effects were significant except the total effect of fitspiration on sexual initiation assertiveness (β = 1.11, SE = 0.21, CI = [0.12, 2.11]). See Supplemental Table 2 (Supplemental Appendix B) for detailed estimates.

RQ1: Does viewing inspirational Instagram images influence young women’s sexual attitudes via the causal mediation of state ideal body internalization and state self-objectification?

A series of PROCESS Model 6 was applied to analyze serial mediation models with state ideal body internalization as Mediator 1 and state self-objectification as Mediator 2. Using bootstrapping with 95% CI revealed nonsignificant indirect effects, direct effects, and total effects for every sexual attitude.

RQ2: Does viewing inspirational Instagram images influence young women’s sexual attitudes via the causal mediation of state appearance comparison, state self-objectification, and state body dissatisfaction, respectively?

An application of PROCESS Model 6 suggested the significant indirect effects of inspirational Instagram images on lower sexual self-efficacy and greater sexual self-consciousness via the causal chain of all three mediators (See Supplemental Figure 2 in Supplemental Appendix C). None of the direct and total effects were significant except the total effect of fitspiration on sexual initiation assertiveness (β = 1.11, S.E. = 0.51, CI = [0.12, 2.11]). See Supplemental Table 3 for detailed estimates. Using standardized indirect coefficients, the indirect effect sizes of both fitspiration and thinspiration on significant sexual attitudes were small, ranging from −0.001 to 0.01.

Discussion

Applying the sociocultural theory such as the tripartite influenced model (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016) and the objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), this study examined the effects of inspirational Instagram images (i.e., fitspiration and thinspiration) on young women’s sexual attitudes and the mediating roles of body image-related variables in the relationships. The results support an application of the sociocultural theory in the visualized social media context, indicating that exposure to inspirational pictures significantly led to greater state appearance comparison and higher state body dissatisfaction, respectively, relative to viewing the control images. The findings did not support the objectification theory, suggesting that exposure to inspirational Instagram images did not significantly impact any sexual attitudes via the mediation of state ideal body internalization and state self-objectification. Our model combined the objectification and sociocultural theory components, suggesting that viewing inspirational Instagram images predicted lower sexual self-efficacy and higher sexual self-consciousness relative to the control group via the causal mediation of state appearance comparison, self-objectification, and state body dissatisfaction, respectively. The results are consistent with existing studies (Fardouly et al., 2017; Feltman & Szymanski, 2018; Fitzsimmons-Craft et al., 2014), which posited the mediating roles of social comparison and self-objectification in associations between social media use and young women’s body image, and extended those into sexual health literature.

Effects of Inspirational Instagram Images on Body Image

As mentioned earlier, our findings support the sociocultural theory in the Instagram context. Similar to prior studies (e.g., Betz & Ramsey, 2017), the indirect effect of fitspiration images on state body dissatisfaction was stronger than thinspiration images. Fitspiration images emphasize being muscular and thin, which may be perceived as a more laborious task to attain relative to only being thin as addressed by thinspiration images. Although some women may regularly work out and live the fitspiration lifestyle such as healthy eating, research suggested that gaining muscle mass was perceived as requiring high effort and feeling uncomfortable among young women (Cotter et al., 2017). A study in college females revealed that both low and high levels of resistance training did not lead to significant muscle strength even after 9 weeks (Franco et al., 2019). However, the study addressed that a low level of resistance training may help women gain fat-free muscle mass, which this scientific information was likely not to be addressed by the fitspiration content. On the opposite, fitspiration portrayed quotes motivating excessive workout (e.g., “exercise like a beast”) (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015), which may make women feel impossible to attain the fitspiration body if they cannot work out at that extreme level. Even though our study did not have participants exposed to any fitspiration quotes related to excessive workout, participants in the fitspiration group might have been exposed to those quotes in their daily life before joining our study. The possible previous exposure resulted in a higher level of appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction than participants in the control group and the thinspiration group. Future studies may examine the effects of fitspiration quotes on appearance comparison and body dissatisfaction. The moderating role of exercising routines may be considered.

The Effects of Inspirational Instagram Image on Young Women’s Sexual Attitudes via the Mediation of Sociocultural Theory Components

In congruence with sexual health literature (Blashill & Safren, 2015), we found that higher state body dissatisfaction was significantly associated with lower sexual self-efficacy and greater sexual self-consciousness. With body dissatisfaction, young women may fear of being sexually rejected by their partner, which resulted in perceived less ability to communicate with a sexual partner regarding safe sex practices (i.e., low sexual-self efficacy) and more focus on body image rather than sexual pleasure (i.e., high sexual self-consciousness).

In addition to the causal mediation of state appearance comparison and state body dissatisfaction, the effects of inspirational Instagram images on sexual self-consciousness and sexual initiation assertiveness were shown to occur through state appearance comparison only. The findings indicated that women’s perception of their physical appearance as a deviance from the inspirational Instagram bodies (i.e., appearance comparison) might directly lead to a heightened awareness about their partner’s impression towards them in the context of physical intimacy (i.e., sexual self-consciousness) and more sexual initiation assertiveness. To our knowledge, research has not reported the correlation between state appearance comparison and sexual initiation assertiveness, although studies showed that negative body image variables (e.g., body dissatisfaction) are related to less sexual initiation assertiveness (Gramsas, 2014).

Our study revealed the positive correlation between appearance comparison and sexual initiation assertiveness. The results may occur because appearance comparison is associated with self-improvement: an interest in advancing oneself to decrease the discrepancy between oneself and their ideal(s) (Westerwick et al., 2017; Wilson et al., 2019). Research (Westerwick et al., 2017) suggested that perceived discrepancy between oneself and an ideal behavior is positively related to the person’s attention to information that might help them obtain the ideal. However, Wilson and colleagues (2019) argued that the perceived discrepancy and one’s biases towards information or attitudes associated with the ideal achievement could be negatively correlated. Mixed results across the studies (Westerwick et al., 2017; Wilson et al., 2019) are perhaps because of the use of different experimental stimuli. Applying the concept of self-improvement (Westerwick et al., 2017; Wilson et al., 2019) in our current research context, women’s appearance comparison with inspirational Instagram images may result in motivation to improve the self to be as sexually attractive as the Instagram figures, which are sexually suggestive with the portrayals of “thin” and “scantily dressed” women (Alberga et al., 2018; Ghaznavi & Taylor, 2015). In turn, the self-motivation resulted in women’s attention to attitudes that facilitate them to achieve the goal to be or to feel sexually attractive. Attitudes about initiating sex could be one potential example because women may get a positive response from a sexual partner, which may make them feel that the self is sexually attractive. Our findings are in conjunction with Westerwick and colleagues (2017) and extended such into the context of idealized Instagram images and young women’s sexual health. Wilson and colleagues (2019) suggested that perceived discrepancy may be more powerful and lead to attitude changes to achieve the goal when the self-discrepancy results from peer norms relative to expert norms. As inspirational Instagram images feature everyday women who could be perceived as peers, sexual initiation attitudes resulting from appearance comparison with the Instagram figures may lead to sexual initiation assertiveness in the real world.

Our thoughts towards the positive relationship between appearance comparison and sexual initiation assertiveness are mixed. On the one hand, sexual initiation assertiveness may be considered a healthy attitude because the construct is positively related to sexual satisfaction (Manago et al., 2015) and may decrease the risk of sexual victimization among young women (Kelley et al., 2016). On the other hand, an aspect of sexual initiation assertiveness assesses one’s demand for their sexual partner to touch their body parts (i.e., breast or genital) (Morokoff et al., 1997). Influenced by appearance comparison with inspirational Instagram figures, the demand to be sexually touched may lead young women to practice reckless sexual behaviors (e.g., unwillingly engage in sexual activities) to confirm that their body is sexually attractive enough and is not much deviant from the Instagram figures. Considering that appearance comparison predicted not only sexual initiation assertiveness but also sexual self-consciousness in the current study, we suggested that sexual initiation assertiveness in relevance to viewing inspirational Instagram images could be maladaptive and should be cautioned by future sexual interventions. Future research may test the effects of inspirational Instagram images on sexual initiation assertiveness via the casual mediation of appearance comparison and self-motivation.

It is noteworthy that appearance comparison acted as a sole mediator for sexual self-consciousness and sexual initiation assertiveness even when body dissatisfaction was included as the second mediator. In the context of media effects on body image, appearance comparison is likely to precede body dissatisfaction (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). Our results suggested that appearance comparison with Instagram figures may serve as a direct predictor of young women’s sexual attitudes without preceding body dissatisfaction. Sexual interventions may focus more on appearance comparison, which seems to be less addressed than body dissatisfaction.

Effects of Inspirational Instagram Images on Sexual Attitudes via the Mediation of Objectification Theory Components

In addition to the sociocultural theory, this current research has applied the objectification theory and tested the effects of inspirational Instagram images on sexual attitudes via the causal mediation of state ideal body internalization and state self-objectification. The results, nonetheless, were not significant potentially because of low statistical power. It may be possible that brief exposure to only ten fitspiration and thinspiration pictures each was not powerful enough to cause young women’s internalization of the Instagram figures’ bodies, resulting in little self-objectification and less change in sexual attitudes consequently. Young women tend to view many more than ten idealized Instagram images in their everyday life. Applying the objectification theory in future research may use more pictures per condition as stimuli and conduct a longitudinal experiment asking participants to view those pictures over time.

Our model combining the components of sociocultural and objectification theories, nonetheless, suggested that low sexual-self efficacy and high sexual self-consciousness from viewing inspirational Instagram images could be explained by women’s appearance comparison with the Instagram figures, which then led to the introspection of their physical appearance. Considering one’s body from a third-person perspective may make women feel dissatisfied with their physical attractiveness, resulting in a perceived low ability to practice safe sex and high consciousness about physical appearance during sexual activities. The findings supported self-objectification as an additional component of the sociocultural theory of body image (Fardouly et al., 2017; Feltman & Szymanski, 2018; Fitzsimmons-Craft et al., 2014) and suggested appearance comparison, self-objectification, body dissatisfaction associated with viewing inspirational Instagram images as crucial elements of sexual health interventions.

Implications, Limitations, and Suggestions for Communication Research

Regarding theoretical implications, our results suggested the need for more awareness of the effects of visualized social media, which allow users to edit, present, and be exposed to unrealistic ideal bodies. Importantly, viewing idealized media images may lead to outcomes that seem to be irrelevant to the images’ original purpose. For instance, exposure to inspirational Instagram images of which the original purpose is to promote a specific body type and lifestyle predicted risky sexual attitudes, although the content does not explicitly promote risky sexual behaviors. Our results also support the integration of self-objectification into the sociocultural theory in the context of social media and young women’s sexual attitudes.

In terms of practical implications, although idealized media images may be related to young women’s sexual attitudes, sexual interventions should be aware of potential small effect sizes, as indicated in the current study. Future sexual health interventions may prioritize other components more than idealized Instagram images literacy, especially under a financial constraint. Nonetheless, it does not mean that the relationship between inspirational Instagram images and young women’s sexual attitudes should be ignored. We found the total effects of fitspiration on sexual initiation assertiveness, indicating that the relationships existed and can be explained by omitted mediators. The underlying mechanism should be further explored, especially among young women who use social media in their daily life and are in the period of life where sexual exploration starts.

Our results implied body image interventions to educate young women about the negative impacts of fitspiration content, which seems healthier than thinspiration. The search of thinspiration related hashtags (e.g., #Thin, #Thinspo) on Instagram in March 2020 provided the warning “Posts with words or tags you are searching can cause harm and even lead to death. If you are going through something difficult, we would like to help.” The warning did not appear with the search of fitspiration-related hashtags. On Pinterest, thinspiration related content is completely banned while the media platform still shows results for the search of fitspiration. Online visual communities seem not to realize the possible adverse effects of fitspiration images.

Similar to other studies, our research has some limitations. Although we found the indirect relationships between viewing idealized Instagram images and young women’s risky sexual attitudes, we by no means suggested that visualized social media always lead to detrimental effects on sexual attitudes via the mediation of body image-related variables. The current study applied a cross-sectional randomized controlled trial. The indirect effects of idealized Instagram images on sexual attitudes and the order of mediators, therefore, should be interpreted with caution. To examine whether viewing idealized media images significantly predicts the causal chain of appearance comparison, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction, which, in turn, predicts sexual attitudes, multiple waves of data collection and analyses are needed. Even though we accounted for potential confounding variables (i.e., eating disorder history, romantic relationship status, and ethnicity), unmeasured variables may moderate or mediate the relationships. For instance, regarding the indirect effects of inspirational Instagram images on sexual self-consciousness via state appearance comparison, perhaps women with low self-esteem may be more impacted than those with high self-esteem. The measurements used to measure young women’s sexual attitudes also applied several terms to refer to a sexual partner. For example, the sexual self-efficacy scale mentions “someone at a party,” “your boyfriend,” “someone you just met,” and “your partner” across the survey items. The use of several terms as a sexual partner reference may impact internal validity because participants’ responses may depend on their feelings towards each term. Future research should account for this issue and apply one consistent term as a sexual partner reference across measurements. Despite the concern, every measurement in the current study showed high internal consistency, indicating instrumental reliability.

Future studies may conduct moderated mediation analyses to further clarify the mechanisms in the current study. Identifying potential moderators and mediators allows future interventions to indicate vulnerable groups of women and psychological components that should be prioritized. Because fitspiration and thinspiration content include both visual and textual aspects, future research may extend our study by examining the combined influences of visuals and texts on body image and sexual attitudes among young women. Some existing studies integrated both visual and textual facets, but they are content analysis (Boepple et al., 2016; Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018). Some randomized controlled trials examined the combined effects of visuals and texts (see Tiggemann & Barbato, 2018; Veldhuis et al., 2017 for more detail). However, those studies focused on a specific type of idealized media images rather than comparing the combined effects of visuals and texts across idealized media image types. This issue needs attention, especially in the era of information flood in which young women are exposed to a variety of idealized social media images. Future studies should examine the effects of inspirational Instagram images among women from various age groups and socio-cultural backgrounds. Those factors may influence sexual attitude changes from viewing inspirational Instagram images. The effects of idealized male images on men’s body image and sexual health are also under-investigated and should be further explored.

Despite the limitations, our study is the first to examine the effects of idealized media images on young women’s sexual attitudes. Our study also conducted an online experiment, which may increase ecological validity because participants could access the study’s Instagram images from their electronic equipment based on their convenience. This circumstance perhaps better matches with young adults’ Instagram use in their real life relative to viewing Instagram images in a laboratory setting.

Supplemental Material

Resubmission-CR-19-276_7-12-2020-Online_Appendices – Supplemental material for The Indirect Effects of Thinspiration and Fitspiration Images on Young Women’s Sexual Attitudes

Supplemental material, Resubmission-CR-19-276_7-12-2020-Online_Appendices for The Indirect Effects of Thinspiration and Fitspiration Images on Young Women’s Sexual Attitudes by Karikarn Chansiri, Thipkanok Wongphothiphan and Autumn Shafer in Communication Research

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Karikarn Chansiri

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Author Biographies

Karikarn Chansiri, a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) at the University of Oregon, focuses on the roles of cognitive-psychological factors in the relationship between media exposure and health-related attitudes and behaviors.

Thipkanok Wongphothiphan, a doctoral student in the SOJC, targets on media effects in health-related behavior promotion. Besides body image-related topics, she is also interested in the effectiveness of messages in advocating healthy behaviors.

Autumn Shafer, PhD, an assistant professor in the SOJC at the University of Oregon, seeks to address important social, theoretical, and practical issues related to public health promotion and social issues advocacy.

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Supplementary Material

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