Socio-cultural power of social media on orthorexia nervosa: An empirical investigation on the mediating role of thin-ideal and muscular internalization, appearance comparison, and body dissatisfaction

Abstract

As social media continues to penetrate users' daily lives, concerns about its negative impact on body image issues and eating disorders are becoming focuses of research. It remains unclear whether social media should be held responsible for promoting orthorexia nervosa—a problematic and extreme fixation on healthy eating. The present study draws on socio-cultural theory and tests a social media-based model in the context of orthorexia nervosa to enhance knowledge of social media's influence on body image issues and orthorectic eating tendencies. The socio-cultural model was tested using structural equation modeling based on responses from a German-speaking sample (n = 647). The results indicate that social media users' involvement with health and fitness accounts is associated with higher orthorectic eating tendencies. Thin-ideal and muscular internalizations mediated this relationship. Interestingly, body dissatisfaction and appearance comparison were not mediators, which can be attributed to the characteristics of orthorexia nervosa. Higher involvement with health and fitness accounts on social media was also related to higher appearance comparisons. The results highlight the powerful influence of social media on orthorexia nervosa and the relevance of socio-cultural models in investigating the mechanisms underlying this influence.