Recognizing the Beauty in Diversity: Exposure to Body-Positive Content on Social Media Broadens Women's Concept of Ideal Body Weight.

By depicting an unrealistic share of skinny or toned body types, modern mass media have been found to shift users' perception of an ideal body toward narrow and often unattainable standards. In response to this, the "#bodypositivity" (BoPo) movement on social media has set out to challenge restrictive body ideals, advocating for more open-minded views toward the human physique. Matching BoPo's emphasis on diversity, we hypothesized that viewing body-positive online content alters women's concept of an ideal body to encompass a broader range of body shapes (on a spectrum from skinny to obese). The results of two pre-registered experiments (N1 = 191; N2 = 266) support our assumption, connecting BoPo not only to a larger mean ideal body shape but also to a diversification of weight-related standards. We discuss our work as a crucial extension of prior research, noting that the range found in people's bodily ideals may be (at least) as relevant as their central tendency. Public Significance Statement: The results of two studies indicate that online media can effectively contribute to more diverse body ideals if they depict a broader range of body shapes as physically attractive. Specifically, our work suggests that by disrupting the frequent overrepresentation of thin female bodies in the media—for the sake of more inclusivity—women's understanding of an ideal body could be changed to encompass a larger range of weight types, potentially prompting more open-minded views and behaviors in society. For psychological scholars, the current research further underscores the importance of looking beyond parameters of central tendency (such as group averages), considering that diversity measures may be as or even more important in certain contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]