Thinspiration, fitspiration and fatspiration use linked to different body and eating urges

Tracking what undergraduates saw on social media several times a day, researchers found different types of body-focused posts related to different kinds of body dissatisfaction and urge changes.

Abstract editorial illustration accompanying the article: Thinspiration, fitspiration and fatspiration use linked to different body and eating urges

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

In this study, undergraduate participants reported moment-by-moment exposure to thinspiration (very thin), fitspiration (fitness/lean bodies), and fatspiration (larger bodies), along with measures of body dissatisfaction and urges related to restricting food or exercising. The researchers analyzed whether what participants viewed at one moment predicted outcomes at later moments over a week.

Results were not the same for each type of content. Viewing thinspiration was linked to greater body dissatisfaction, fitspiration to lower body appreciation, and fatspiration to stronger urges to exercise. In the other direction, the main significant link was that people who reported higher body objectification were more likely to view less thinspiration content, while gender did not change these moment-to-moment relationships.

Links differ by content type

Using ecological momentary assessment over seven days (reports six times a day; n = 858, with 78.3% women), the study found: - Viewing thinspiration predicted greater body dissatisfaction. - Viewing fitspiration predicted lower body appreciation. - Viewing fatspiration predicted greater urges to exercise.

In the reverse direction, the only significant relationship found was that higher body objectification predicted less thinspiration content viewing. Gender did not moderate the moment-to-moment relationships.

Managing social media may help

Because the relationships differed by type of body-focused content, the findings suggest that managing social media use could be a practical way to reduce potential harm related to body image and disordered eating urges. The results also indicate that effects may not run equally in both directions.

Moment-to-moment associations, not proof

This is observational evidence from ecological momentary assessment, which can track how people’s experiences and outcomes change in close time to their reported exposure. However, the abstract does not establish whether the content causes the changes, and the sample is largely women and limited to undergraduates, which may affect how broadly the results apply. The study also notes that future work should examine other traits that may explain why the relationships vary among individuals.

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