Redefining Beauty: A quantitative investigation of the power of body-positive messaging on social media

Abstract

The portrayal of body image significantly influences user perceptions and interactions. This master’s thesis investigates how body-positive versus aspirational messaging on social media impacts perceived esteem, focusing on the mediating roles of competence, authenticity, warmth, and hubristic pride, alongside the moderating effect of attractiveness. Our study addresses a critical gap in existing research by exploring the nuanced psychological mechanisms behind social media engagement and body image representation.

To key studies examined (1) the main effects of body-positive messaging on perceived esteem through an experimental design using Independent Samples T-Test, in which participants were exposed to body-positive or aspirational social media posts. Hayes PROCESS Model 4 was utilized to investigate the mediating effects. Additionally, we (2) extended this investigation by incorporating the moderating role of attractiveness using ANCOVA and Hayes PROCESS Model 8 for moderated mediation analysis.

We argue that body-positive messaging significantly enhances perceived esteem, essentially through the mediator of competence. Notably, even when attractiveness was accounted for as a moderator, competency was found to be the most consistent mediator across analyses. This implies that in social media setting, individuals place a high emphasis on perceived skill and ability, which affects overall esteem. Additionally, compared to very attractive individuals, averagely attractive individuals received a greater boost in perceived esteem from body-positive messaging. We revealed a background effect of posting frequency, suggesting that participants' personal social media usage affects their perceptions of the posts of others.

We provide theoretical, practical and managerial implications on the basis of this research.