Belinda Smith

And I think, you know, through this research that we've done, you know, consistently, we find that there's negative effects associated to exposure, direct exposure to these images.

So our study finds that exposure to fitspiration content leads to very negative outcomes consistently.

So it truly paints this dire picture because it not only affects people's self-esteem, negative affect, even reduces positive affect.

It also taps into, you know, increased motivations to diet and to exercise and, you know, overarchingly very negative for your body image.

So we see across the board and through this meta-analysis, it allows us to paint a really interesting picture of what this landscape looks like.

And again, right from very brief exposures, I believe on average it was about 10 to 27 images that they were exposed to.

So imagine we consume that in about a minute.

maybe, right, as we're scrolling through social media.

Actually, how Fitspiration originated, it was intended like very explicitly leading people to develop eating disorders and eating

engage in very extreme forms of exercise in order to achieve such standards.

But now we see that very deeply ingrained in the imagery itself.

So that is the really intense part, especially depending on the circles within social media that this content is circulating, whether the messaging is more explicit or not, and how intense those body portrayals are.

And I think the true danger of it, if we want to call it a danger or, you know,

a preoccupation with engaging with this content is that it truly taps into something deeply human, right?

That desire to improve ourselves and that its core, it speaks to motivation, aspiration, and that drive to be a better version of who we are.

And that's a very powerful emotional hook, right?

That's why this content resonates so widely.

But what is really interesting and specifically how this navigates on social media is that Fitspiration doesn't just encourage that self-improvement, right?

It's tied to that pursuit of the very specific, often very narrow ideal of what health and success should look like, especially as it taps into that aspirational lifestyle of fitness ingrained within your life.

So often it does encourage that extreme diet, extreme exercise measures to achieve such ideals, right, which can feel motivating.