Can following body positive or appearance neutral Facebook pages improve young women’s body image and mood? Testing novel social media micro-interventions

Abstract

Small changes to social media use could have a large impact across the population. The present study tested novel social media micro-interventions (i.e., brief content delivered in everyday life) in which young women (N = 159) were instructed to either (1) follow a body positive Facebook group, (2) follow an appearance neutral Facebook group, or (3) use Facebook as usual. Relevant content was posted to the Facebook groups three times per day for two weeks. Primary outcomes were trait body image (body dissatisfaction and appreciation) and mood, and secondary outcomes were trait self-objectification, appearance comparison tendency, and body activism. Outcomes were assessed across three timepoints: pre-test (T1), post-test (T2) after the 14-day intervention period, and follow-up (T3) 4-weeks after T2. Participants in both the body positive and appearance neutral conditions reported decreased body dissatisfaction from T1 to T2 (small-medium effects) and participants in the body positive condition reported decreased appearance comparisons from T1 to T2 (medium effect). There were no changes for those variables from T2 to T3. No other significant differences were found. Viewing a small number of body positive or appearance neutral posts on social media may be an effective inexpensive micro-intervention for improving young women’s body image.