The Impact of Exposure to Appearance-Based TikTok Content and Comments on Body Image Among Emerging Adults

Social media continues to be pervasive in the lives of young adults, and with platforms like TikTok popularizing short-form video content, it remains important to investigate the effects of viewing this content. Although the body positivity movement, popularized on social media platforms, has been associated with improved body image outcomes, concerns remain about its appearance-focused nature and potential for self-objectification and appearance comparison. Similarly, gym motivation and fitspiration content, ostensibly focused on health, has been linked to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors. This study examined the effects of exposure to TikTok videos featuring body positivity, gym motivation, or control content on body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, and negative mood. The role of appearance-focused versus appearance-neutral comments accompanying these videos was also explored. A sample of 320 undergraduate students completed pretest and posttest measures of body dissatisfaction, negative mood, and self-objectification. Appearance comparison tendencies were also measured to investigate their role as a mechanism by which viewing different types of appearance-focused content might impact body dissatisfaction. Overall results suggest that appearance-based TikTok content does impact body image outcomes, however, the specific role that comments play remains unclear. Our results also offer support for the indirect effect of appearance comparison when considering the relation between viewing appearance-based content and body image-related outcomes. Future research should continue to elucidate the effects of social media comments as well as other specific aspects of social media use in order fully understand how these characteristics interact with each other to impact body image outcomes. These findings can help guide future interventions, as well as inform platform design and community guidelines, to foster healthier online environments for young adults.