Nearly half of are dissatisfied with the way their body looks. Social media has only made worse for young people, leading them to compare themselves with others and strive for often unattainable – and unhealthy – beauty standards. TikTok, which allows people to create and consume short videos, has amassed more than .
Harmful content, including videos that glamorise disordered eating and extremely thin bodies, circulate readily on the platform. Given most TikTok users are , we wanted to explore how such content affects young women's body image. Our found watching just eight minutes of TikTok content focused on dieting, weight loss and exercise had an immediate negative effect on body image satisfaction.
We recruited 273 female-identifying TikTok users aged 18 to 28 and randomly allocated them into two groups. People with a past or current eating disorder diagnosis were excluded from the study. Participants in the experimental group were shown a 7–8 minute compilation of "pro-anorexia" and "fitspiration" content taken directly from TikTok.
These video clips featured young women restricting their food intake and giving workout advice and dieting tips, such as describing their juice cleanses for weight loss. Participants in the control group watched a 7–8 minute compilation of TikTok videos featuring "neutral" content such as videos of nature, cooking and animals. Using a series of questionnaires, we measured levels of body image satisfaction and attitudes towards beauty .