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Running Head: INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 1
Psychology of Popular Media Culture, in press
© 2018, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not
exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without
authors permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI:
10.1037/ppm0000182
Exploring the relationship between frequency of Instagram use, exposure to idealised images,
and psychological wellbeing in women.
Mary Sherlock & Danielle L. Wagstaff
Federation University, Northways Road, Churchill, Vic, 3842, AUSTRALIA
Abstract
Research on the mental health effects of social networking have predominantly focussed on
Facebook, with limited research investigating the effects of Instagram on psychological
wellbeing. This study aimed to address the link between Instagram use and a range of
psychological variables in two parts. Participants were 129 women aged between 18 and 35
years. In part 1, women completed a series of questionnaires related to mental health
outcomes and self-perceptions. Results showed that frequency of Instagram use is correlated
with depressive symptoms, self-esteem, general and physical appearance anxiety, and body
dissatisfaction; and that the relationship between Instagram use and each of these variables is
mediated by social comparison orientation. In part 2, participants were exposed to a range of
either beauty, fitness, or travel Instagram images (or a control condition with no images).
Beauty and fitness images significantly decreased self-rated attractiveness, and the magnitude
of this decrease correlated with anxiety, depressive symptoms, self-esteem and body
dissatisfaction. Therefore, excessive Instagram use may contribute to negative psychological
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 2
outcomes and poor appearance-related self-perception, in line with previous research. The
research has implications for interventions and education about chronic Instagram use.
Keywords: Social Networking; Psychological Wellbeing; Online Behavior; Instagram
Public Significance Statement. Instagram has features distinctive from Facebook, making
investigation of the mental health effects of this medium worthwhile. Instagram use is
correlated with a range of psychological wellbeing variables including depressive symptoms,
anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and self-esteem. Exposure to idealised images leads to a
decrease in self-rated attractiveness, implying chronic exposure may impact psychological
health.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 3
Introduction
The appealing features of Social Networking Sites (SNS’s), such as the ability to
communicate with others despite geographical distance, have attracted billions of users
worldwide, with many incorporating social networking into their daily routine (Boyd &
Ellison, 2007). Between 2014 and 2015, 72% of Australians accessed the internet for social
networking purposes, with younger age groups (< 35 years) being the heaviest internet users
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016). Indeed, 80% of university students use their devices
(i.e., laptops, tablets, and mobile phones) for social networking purposes.
People who have a social networking account can create an online profile to share
with other users who are already a part of their offline network, or to interact with new
people. Not only are these digital avenues revolutionising how people interact, but they have
also influenced the kind of material individuals choose to share (Vogel et al., 2014). That is,
it is common to see users highlighting their individualism by posting socially desirable
material that reflect an idealised lifestyle (Mehdizadeh, 2010). Given unlimited access to
other users’ profiles, people are likely to engage in social comparisons. Social comparison
theory centres on the belief that individuals have an internal drive to gain accurate self-
evaluations (Festinger, 1954), and do so by engaging in upwards social comparisons (i.e.,
comparing themselves to perceived superior comparators), or downwards social comparisons
(i.e., comparing themselves to perceived inferior comparators). Thus, we may compare
ourselves with others on social media as an avenue to determine our social and personal
worth. These types of social media-based social comparisons, however, may lead to negative
outcomes, particularly as individuals present their most ‘ideal’ selves on social media
(Mehdizadeh, 2010), therefore inviting upwards social comparisons from others. While the
effects of exposure to idealised images is well established (see Groesz, Levine, & Murnen,
2002 for a review of the effect of thin media images on body satisfaction), social media
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 4
platforms differ significantly from mass media outlets in how rapidly content is updated, and
in the sheer number of potential comparators it is possible to be exposed to. Furthermore,
whereas mass media typically portrays images of models and celebrities as idealistic
standards of beauty, the world of social media is awash with ‘ordinary’ people who may be
perceived as more ‘ordinary’ comparison targets. For example, excessive Facebook use has
been proposed to promote high rates of social comparison (Liu, Li, Cacioppolo, & North,
2016) and several studies have established a significant relationship between excessive
Facebook use and psychological wellbeing variables. This includes depression (Błachnio,
Przepiórka & Pantic, 2015; Steers, Wickham, & Acitelli, 2014), poor self-esteem (Błachino,
Przepiorka & Rudnicka, 2015), high anxiety (Labrague, 2014), high body dissatisfaction
(Fardouly, Hershenberg, Bhatia, & Halliwell, 2014), and low self-perceived physical
attractiveness (Haferkamp & Krämer, 2011). As of yet, however, research has infrequently
extended to the exploration of these outcomes in users of more recently developed SNS’s,
such as Instagram. As such, this study explores the link between Instagram use and various
measures of psychological wellbeing in women. We chose to study these effects in young
women, since young women make up the majority of Instagram’s user base (Pew Research
Centre, 2015), and tend to make more social comparisons than men (Gibbons & Buunk,
1999).
Despite Instagram’s shared functionality with Facebook (Wilson, Gosling, & Graham,
2012), there are some key differences that make exploration of Instagram users a worthwhile
endeavour. Instagram was established in 2010 and has rapidly grown to 500 million users in
2016 (Statista, 2016). The functionality of Instagram is reserved to the sharing of
photographs and short videos, and is commonly known for its utilisation of various photo-
enhancing filters. These filters allow Instagram users to manipulate their photographs to be
more visually appealing. Similar to Facebook, Instagram has a direct messaging function and
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 5
allows users to ‘like’ and comment on other users’ photographs and videos. A more
distinctive feature of Instagram, though, is the use of ‘hashtags’, with captions that create
links to user content. The hashtag is placed in front of a word or phrase to identify either a
keyword or highlight a topic of interest (Highfield & Leaver, 2015), for example, #fitness. As
a result, global sharing of particular items, categorised with hashtags, occurs instantaneously,
provided the user profile is made public. Uniquely, Instagram has a search and explore tab
that shows photographs and videos from public profiles, based on the users’ recent search
history, and thus introducing users to new content without the need to search specifically for
that content, further expanding the number of potential social comparison targets.
It is plausible that Instagram’s appealing features, specifically being a forum for
visual content, encourages users to engage in excessive social comparison, which can lead to
negative outcomes (e.g., Lup, Trub, & Rosenthal, 2015). Previous research has demonstrated
that visual information is remembered more readily than written information (Noldy,
Stelmack & Campbell, 1990). Thus, Instagram’s main feature of video and photo sharing
may, in fact, be more harmful than other SNS’s that have a focus on written content (status
updates and wall posts) and sharing of links to other sites (such as news articles), rather than
strictly visual displays. Lup et al. (2015) investigated this link, and found more frequent
Instagram use was (marginally) positively associated with depressive symptoms, and
negatively associated with social comparison, with Instagram use also having an indirect
effect on depression, mediated by social comparison. Interestingly, Lup et al. found the
proportion of strangers a user followed moderated these associations, with higher numbers of
strangers increasing depressive symptoms and social comparison, and moderating the
mediation between Instagram use and depressive symptoms by social comparison. Hence,
Instagram use is related to poor psychological wellbeing via social comparison.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 6
The use of Instagram hashtags has also led to trends on the SNS that may have
negative outcomes for adult and adolescent women. For example, the trend ‘fitspiration’ (the
amalgamation of the words fitness and inspiration) purports to act as motivation for others to
pursue a healthier lifestyle, but the majority of these images contain very thin and toned
women (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2016). As Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2016) discuss,
exposure to images of thin idealised bodies can impact body image, and so the over-
representation of these body types on Instagram could have negative effects. Furthermore, in
an experimental study, Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2015) exposed women to fitspiration
images, or travel images as a control. The researchers demonstrated that exposure to
fitspiration images resulted in greater body dissatisfaction and lower state appearance self-
esteem compared to exposure to travel images. Despite fitspiration imagery’s intent to
encourage a healthy lifestyle, it may instead decrease the psychological health of its heavy
consumers (Tiggeman & Zaccardo, 2016). These results are consistent with the interpersonal
formulation of eating disorders theory (Rieger et al., 2010), which considers engagement in
disordered eating in response to unsuccessful social interactions a psychological mechanism
to repair self-esteem. Further to this, Turner and Lefevre (2017) found, for participants who
followed healthy eating accounts on Instagram, a small but significant correlation between
amount of time spent on Instagram and tendency towards orthorexia nervosa, an obsession
with healthy eating. Finally, Hendrickse, Arpan, Clayton, and Ridgway (2017) have
demonstrated that appearance-related social comparisons mediate the relationship between
women’s Instagram photo activities, and strive for thinness and body dissatisfaction, while
Brown and Tiggeman (2016) found that exposing women to celebrity and peer images on
Instagram increased body dissatisfaction and negative mood, mediated by appearance
comparisons. Thus, excessive use of social media that promote social comparison via visual
mediums, could lead to negative psychological outcomes.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 7
While the research discussed above has shown that social comparison behaviour on
Facebook can impact an individual’s mental health (including depressive symptoms, anxiety,
body dissatisfaction, self-esteem, and self-rated physical attractiveness), relatively fewer
studies have examined the effect of Instagram use on these outcomes, focussing so far on
depressive symptoms and tendency towards orthorexia (see Turner & Lefevre, 2017), or on
body dissatisfaction and strive for thinness (Brown & Tiggeman, 2016; Hendrickse et al.,
2017). Since Instagram has slightly different functionality to Facebook, and is related to
negative body image trends, such as #fitspiration, it is important to examine whether that
exposure could have an effect on not only appearance-related anxiety and body
dissatisfaction, but other measures of general psychological health. Given that social
information presented through visual materials can provoke immediate social comparison, it
can only be assumed that Instagram use will have links with psychological wellbeing,
perhaps to an even greater degree than excessive Facebook use. To address this gap, the aim
of this study was to identify whether a relationship exists between Instagram use and mental
health outcomes including depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and general anxiety, as well as
self-rated physical attractiveness, body dissatisfaction, and physical appearance anxiety. We
also planned to test the extent to which these relationships are mediated by social
comparison, similar to the relationship identified by other researchers (Lup et al., 2015).
Finally, we explored whether exposure to Instagram images could have a discernible
immediate effect on psychological outcomes, by asking participants to view a set of
Instagram posts. Based on previous research demonstrating the link between Facebook use
and psychological outcomes (as described above), we hypothesised that time spent on
Instagram would correlate positively with depression, physical appearance anxiety,
generalised anxiety, social comparison, and body dissatisfaction, and correlate negatively
with self-esteem. Secondly, based on Tiggeman and Zaccardo (2015), we hypothesised that
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 8
exposure to images that invite upwards social comparisons (i.e., idealised fitness and beauty
images) would decrease appearance self-esteem and self-rated physical attractiveness, and
increase state and physical appearance anxiety, as compared to the travel images or the
control group.
Methods
Participants were 129 women ranging in age from 18 to 35 years (M = 24.60 years,
SD = 4.54) who indicated they currently used Instagram. Participants were recruited from the
authors’ University undergraduate Psychology participant pool, as well as volunteers
recruited via social networking sites and flyer advertisements on University campuses. The
research was approved by the Institutional human ethics research committee, and all
participants provided their informed consent. The study was hosted on SurveyMonkey and
included two parts. Participation took approximately 30-40 minutes, and upon completion
participants were presented with a debriefing statement regarding the nature of the
manipulation.
Part 1
Materials and procedure. Participants completed a survey containing the following
scales presented in random order:
The 20-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies depression scale (CES-D; Radloff,
1977) was used to measure depressive symptoms. Participants were asked to answer a
number of questions relating to how they felt or behaved in the week prior, including “I felt
depressed” and “I had crying spells”, on a scale from 1(rarely or none of the time) to 4(all of
the time). Higher scores indicate higher depressive symptoms. The CES-D had high internal
reliability (α = 0.93).
The Heatherton self-esteem scale (SSES; Heatherton & Polivy, 1991) measures state
self-esteem across three domains: performance, social interaction, and appearance.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 9
Participants respond to 20 items such as “I feel self-conscious” and “I feel as smart as
others”, on a five-point scale from 1(not at all) to 5(extremely). Higher scores indicate higher
self-esteem. The SSES had high internal reliability (α = 0.96).
The State-Trait anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, 1983) is a commonly used
measure of general anxiety and contains 20 items for assessing state anxiety and 20 for trait
anxiety. Items include “I am tense”, and “I am a steady person”, which participants answer on
a four-point scale from 1(almost never) to 4(almost always). Higher scores indicate greater
anxiety. The STAI had high internal reliability (α = 0.96).
The physical appearance state and trait anxiety scale (PASTAS; Reed, Thompson,
Brannick, & Sacco, 1991) measures an individual’s body image anxiety as they generally feel
(trait) and as they currently feel (state). The trait scale asks participants to best indicate the
extent to which they generally feel anxious, tense or nervous about specific body parts such
as “my hips” and “my buttocks”, on a five-point scale from 1(never) to 5(always). The state
scale asks how they feel about the same body parts “right now” on a scale from 1(not at all)
to 5(exceptionally so). Higher scores indicate higher physical appearance anxiety. The scale
had high internal reliability (α = 0.91).
Self-rated physical attractiveness was measured by two questions: “rate what you
perceive to be your own physical attractiveness compared to your same sex friends”, and
“rate what you perceive to be your own physical attractiveness compared to the general
population”, on a scale from 1(extremely less attractive) to 9 (extremely more attractive).
Scores were summed to create a single value for self-rated attractiveness. The items
correlated strongly (r = 0.72).
The Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ; Cash, Phillips, Santos, &
Hrabosky, 2004) assesses concerns about physical appearance. The BIDQ consists of seven
items such as “are you concerned about the appearance of some part(s) of your body, which
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 10
you consider especially unattractive?” which participants answer on a scale from 1(not at all
concerned) to 5(extremely concerned). Higher scores indicate higher body image disturbance.
The scale showed high internal consistency (α = 0.93).
Social comparison was measured using the Iowa Netherlands Comparison Orientation
Scale (INCOM; Gibbons & Buunk, 1999), with 11 items measuring how frequently
individuals compare themselves to others. Items include “I always like to know what others
in a similar situation would do”, measured on a five-point scale from 1(disagree strongly) to
5(agree strongly). Higher scores indicate higher frequency of social comparison. The INCOM
scale showed high internal reliability (α = 0.83).
Instagram use was measured using questions derived by the researchers. Items related
to frequency of use. That is, “how many followers do you have on Instagram?” from 1(1-10)
to 11(1000+), “how many accounts do you follow on Instagram?” from 1(1-10) to 11(1000+),
and “in the past week, on average, approximately how much time per day have you spent
actively using Instagram”, from 1(less than 10 minutes) to 6(more than three hours).
Design. Part 1 consisted of a correlational design, in which we correlated Instagram
use with each of the psychological wellbeing variables, and with age. Since Lup et al. (2015)
found that the relationship between Instagram use and depression was mediated by social
comparison, we attempted to replicate these findings, as well as explore the mediation by
social comparison of the relationship between Instagram use and other psychological
wellbeing variables.
Part 2
Materials and procedure. Instagram stimuli were selected by searching images from
the Instagram database of public accounts. Three categories of images were sourced, obtained
by using the hashtags #Beauty (beauty), #Fitspo (fitness) or #Travel (travel). Ten beauty
images were selected on the basis that they showed a female’s face who was obviously
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 11
wearing makeup. Ten fitness images were chosen on the basis that they showed a female
wearing work-out apparel who was either engaged in exercise or was based in a fitness centre
setting. Ten travel images were selected that represented major travel destinations around the
world, with many focussing on iconic landmarks and attractions, with no visible faces present
in any images. Each of the 30 images was ‘framed’ using the standard Instagram frame, the
original captions and usernames were removed, and the number of ‘likes’ was artificially
inflated to increase the perception of popularity (i.e., 4,427 likes to 124,740 likes). An
example of how the images were presented is shown in Figure 1. A manipulation check
demonstrated these images best fit their allocated categories.1
After completing the scales in part 1 of the study, 35 participants were randomly
assigned to the travel group, 30 to the beauty group, 28 to the fitness group, and 31 to the
control group2. For the three image groups, participants were shown each of the ten images
for their condition, in random order. To ensure participants viewed the images, they were
presented with these images threefold. First, images were presented on a single page, with the
instruction “please look at the following images carefully”. Secondly, images were presented
again on a single page, with the instruction “please look at the following images carefully and
click ‘like’ on only two of the images that you find the most appealing”. Finally, the images
were presented with the instruction “please look at the following images carefully and write a
comment on only two of the images that you find most appealing”. The control group did not
view any images, and simply went on to answer the questions.
Following presentation of the images (or immediately after completion of the
previous scales for the control group), the participants completed the SSES, the STAI (state),
1 14 participants (8 female, M age = 33.31, SD = 7.13) were asked to categorise the images as fitting into one of
four categories: Travel inspiration, Makeup and Beauty, Fitness, or none. Each image was correctly categorised
into their appropriate categories with inter-rater agreement between 67% and 100% (M = 90.2%).
2 Six participants from part 1 did not complete part 2 (thus n = 123). A priori power analysis indicated a sample
size of 40 participants would be required per group to detect an effect of medium size. Owing to attrition and
incomplete data, actual power to detect a medium effect was approximately 0.68.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 12
the PASTAS (state), and self-rated physical attractiveness scales a second time, in random
order.
Design. In part 2 of the study, we investigated the effect of exposure to beauty,
fitness, or travel images (or control) on the change in scores on the psychological wellbeing
variables. Thus, for each of the variables of interest, a 2 (pre-image or post-image) x 4
(condition) mixed-model ANOVA was conducted.
Results
Part 1 - Instagram Use and Psychological Wellbeing
As shown in Table 1, average time spent on Instagram correlated positively with
depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, social comparison orientation, physical appearance
anxiety, and body image disturbance. Time spent on Instagram also correlated negatively
with self-esteem, thus findings are consistent with the hypothesis. Exploring the other
Instagram measures taken, we found that number of followers correlated positively with
depression, trait anxiety, and negatively with self-esteem. Number of accounts followed
correlated positively with depression and negatively with self-esteem. Additionally, age
correlated negatively with Instagram use (r = -0.36, p < .001), and negatively with social
comparison (r = -0.21, p = .019).
Similarly to Lup et al. (2015), we then explored the mediation of the association
between social media use and psychological outcomes, by determining whether social
comparison mediated the relationship between Instagram use and depressive symptoms, self-
esteem, trait anxiety, physical appearance anxiety, and body image disturbance. Mediation
analyses were conducted with Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS, using Model 4 (for
mediation) with 10,000 bootstrap samples. We included age as a covariate in every model,
given age correlated with both Instagram use and social comparison (see above). We found a
significant, partial, mediating influence of social comparison on the relationship between
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 13
Instagram use and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and physical appearance anxiety.
Similarly, social comparison also had a significant fully mediating effect on the relationship
between time spent on Instagram and trait anxiety and body image disturbance. Coefficient
weights and effect sizes for each model are shown in Figure 2.
Part 2: Effects of Image Exposure on Change in Psychological Wellbeing
To compare the effect of exposure to different categories of Instagram images (or no
exposure in the control group) on self-esteem, appearance anxiety, self-rated attractiveness,
and general anxiety, ANOVAs were conducted with measurement time (pre-image or post-
image) within subjects, and condition (control, travel, beauty, or fitness) as the between
subjects variable. The outcome of interest was the interaction between measurement time and
condition.
No effect of condition on the change in self-esteem (p = .316), appearance anxiety (p
= .427), or general anxiety (although general anxiety did approach significance, p = .062) was
observed, which was not in line with the hypotheses. However, a significant interaction
between condition and measurement time was observed for self-rated attractiveness scores
[F(3,116) = 3.18, p = .008, η2p = .096, observed power = 0.84]. Post-hoc simple main effects
analysis (controlling for multiple comparisons) showed this was due to a significant decrease
in self-rated attractiveness for those participants who were exposed to images in the beauty
(difference score = -0.90 p < .001) and fitspo (difference score = -0.48; p = .047) categories,
but not the participants in the travel (difference score = 0.17, p = .418) or control groups
(difference score = -0.32; p = .175). No difference between the beauty group and fitness
group in the decrease in scores was observed. In order to explore which other psychological
wellbeing variables might have been associated with the decrease in self-rated attractiveness,
we selected only those participants who were categorised to the beauty or fitness conditions
(n = 58), and correlated change in self-rated physical attractiveness with each of the other
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 14
psychological wellbeing outcomes. As shown in Table 2, larger changes in self-rated
attractiveness were associated with higher depressive symptoms, general anxiety, physical
appearance anxiety, and body dissatisfaction, and with lower self-esteem scores.
Discussion
Instagram Use and Psychological Wellbeing
There is an array of evidence demonstrating excessive Facebook use is related to
negative mental health outcomes (e.g., Błachnio, Przepiórka & Pantic, 2015; Błachino,
Przepiorka & Rudnicka, 2015; Fardouly et al., 2014; Haferkamp & Krämer, 2011; Labrague,
2014). In Part one of this study, we demonstrated that heavier Instagram use (as well as
number of followers, and number of people followed) correlated with a range of
psychological wellbeing outcomes, including depressive symptoms, general anxiety, physical
appearance anxiety, self-esteem, and body image disturbance. Previously, Lup et al. (2015)
showed that the relationship between Instagram use and depressive symptoms was mediated
by social comparison. Here, we discovered a similar relationship, with social comparison
having a significant mediating effect on the relationship between Instagram use and
depressive symptoms, as well as general anxiety, physical appearance anxiety, self-esteem,
and body image disturbance. These results are also in line with previous research
demonstrating that social comparison behaviour after exposure to social media has a negative
effect on mental health (e.g., Feinstein et al., 2013; Labrague, 2014; Vogel et al., 2014).
Similarly, Hendrickse et al (2017) found that appearance-related comparisons on Instagram
mediated the relationship between Instagram photo activity and drive for thinness and body
dissatisfaction.
This research is important as Instagram has some distinguishing features that set it
apart from Facebook, and relatively fewer studies have focussed on Instagram. Importantly,
Instagram is associated with a range of social trends, such as ‘fitspiration’, which can lead to
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 15
negative body image outcomes (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). Thus, excessive Instagram
exposure may have an effect on other aspects of psychological wellbeing that extend beyond
depressive symptoms, to self-esteem and body image (e.g., Hendrickse et al., 2017). While
Facebook use is linked to negative outcomes, our assertion that exposure to visual media,
specifically, can lead to negative outcomes, is complemented by research by Meier and Gray
(2014). Meier and Gray showed that Facebook photo activity, rather than total Facebook
activity, correlated positively with body dissatisfaction. Therefore, based on our findings,
increased use of the image based platform Instagram, in which users post idealised images, is
likely putting users at higher risk of negative outcomes than users of other forms of social
media. While fewer studies have addressed the link between Instagram and psychological
wellbeing, than Facebook, some recent studies have attempted to address this gap. For
example, Lup et al. (2015) found a link between Instagram use and depressive symptoms
(mediated by social comparison), Turner and Lefevre (2017) have found a link between
Instagram use and tendency toward orthorexia nervosa, and Hendrikse et al. (2017) showed a
an association between Instagram photo activity and strive for thinness and body
dissatisfaction, mediated by appearance-related social comparisons. Hence, the study reported
here adds to a growing body of literature on the link between Instagram exposure and
psychological wellbeing.
In our sample, younger participants spent more time on Instagram, and engaged in
higher levels of social comparison. Although our sample was restricted to a young adult to
adult demographic (i.e., age 18 to 35 years), these findings suggest that Instagram use could
pose an even higher risk to psychological wellbeing in adolescents. For example, previous
research has demonstrated that social comparison behaviour on Facebook has negative
mental health effects among adolescents (Krayer, Ingledew, & Iphofen, 2007). However,
research on the effects of Instagram use among different age groups is limited. Nevertheless,
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 16
a recent study (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015) found that adolescents who engaged in technology
based social comparison (i.e., using Facebook and Instagram) and increased feedback seeking
behaviour, experienced more depressive symptoms one year on. Gender and popularity were
moderators of this effect, whereby females and less popular students expressed the highest
rates of depressive symptoms. This also implies that the use of these media are causing, to
some extent, the change in psychological wellbeing, rather than (or perhaps, in addition to)
users selecting these sites because of low pre-existing psychological wellbeing.
In this study, we showed that number of followers also correlated with the range of
psychological wellbeing variables. Since Facebook and Instagram users are likely to share
positive and idealistic portrayals of themselves, teenagers may feel they are ‘missing out’ or
‘everyone is doing better’ than themselves when making social comparisons on line. This
seems to relate to the extent to which individuals follow others who are unknown to them,
with Chou and Edge (2012) showing that those who used Facebook for longer, and who
followed more strangers, agreed more that others had better lives. These negative outcomes
may be larger for teenagers who are less popular than their peers (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015).
Finally, while the aim of this research was to explore the effects of Instagram use on
female psychological wellbeing, males are also prone to body dissatisfaction after exposure
to idealised images (e.g., Galioto & Crowther, 2013; Hargreaves & Tiggeman, 2009), and
social comparison can also mediate the link between social media use and depressive
symptoms in men (Steers et al., 2014). Hence, it is worthwhile for future research to address
the outcomes of excessive Instagram use in both adolescent samples and in males, including
long-term impact.
Effects of Image Exposure on Change in Psychological Wellbeing
In order to further explore the effects of Instagram use on mental health outcomes, we
exposed participants Instagram posts in three conditions: fitness, beauty, travel; or no images
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 17
(in a control condition). Unlike Tiggemann and Zaccardo (2015), we found no decrease in
self-esteem or increase in physical appearance anxiety. There are several possible reasons for
this, potentially relating to presentation style. Firstly, in Tiggeman and Zaccardo’s (2015)
research, participants were exposed to 18 images. Here, participants were exposed to only 10
images. It is possible this exposure was not sufficient to induce the decrease in self-esteem, or
the increase in physical appearance anxiety that was observed by Tiggemann and Zaccardo
(2015). On the other hand, social comparison theory would suggest that upwards social
comparisons would have a greater effect if comparison targets are similar to oneself
(Festinger, 1954). Participants may not have felt sufficiently engaged with these images
because the comparison targets were too dissimilar to them. However, brief exposure to these
images did decrease self-rated attractiveness, implying that participants engaged in a re-
evaluation of their notion of ‘average’ attractiveness and rated themselves accordingly. Since
Instagram images are typically ‘ideal’ images, this leads to a contrast effect in which
individuals rate themselves as less attractive (Gutierres, Kenrick, & Partch, 1999). It is
possible that chronic exposure to these images due to excessive use of Instagram, and the
subsequent reconsideration of one’s self-rated attractiveness would lead to more worrying
changes in physical appearance anxiety, body image disturbance, and self-esteem. The results
of part 1 support this assertion, since self-rated attractiveness correlated with each
psychological wellbeing variable, and further, spending longer on Instagram each day
correlated with every psychological wellbeing variable measured.
Post-hoc correlations for the beauty and fitness groups also revealed that the decrease
in self-rated physical attractiveness was significantly related to all other psychological
wellbeing measures. Thus, those with higher levels of depressive symptoms, lower self-
esteem, higher anxiety, and lower body image satisfaction, showed greater decreases in self-
rated physical attractiveness after exposure to beauty and fitness images. Thus, while we did
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 18
not observe a decrease in self-esteem or physical appearance anxiety after exposure to beauty
and fitness images in this sample, there is still reason to believe that excessive exposure to
idealised images on Instagram could have negative psychological outcomes. These results
add to the growing body of literature on the effects of exposure to idealised images on
Instagram on psychological wellbeing. If chronic exposure can lead to long-term changes in
psychological wellbeing, then this has implications for both interventions regarding, and
education surrounding, safe social-media use, particularly for adolescents.
While we completed this study in an online survey platform, future research should
investigate the effects of exposure to idealised images in different presentation formats. For
example, Vogel et al. (2014) created fake Facebook profiles and found exposure to
individuals who appeared fit, healthy and attractive, resulted in lower self-esteem among
participants. The complexity of these profiles may have increased their believability, and thus
the tendency for participants to engage in social comparison behaviour, leading to a
significant decrease in their self-esteem. In addition, viewing real Facebook profiles of
physically attractive users has been found to trigger poorer self-perceived attractiveness
(Haferkamp & Kramer, 2011), and other experimental methods requiring participants to use
Facebook for 20 minutes in a laboratory setting, revealed state anxiety to be a risk factor for
disordered eating (Mabe, Forney & Keel, 2014). Presentation format is potentially important,
since Wan, Ansons, Chattopadhyay, and Leboe (2013) found that asking women to view
some photographs of other women and rate their attractiveness, led to increases, rather than
decreases in self-evaluations. This was in contrast to a condition in which women were asked
to rate the suitability of the sunglasses worn by the models in the photographs, which led to a
decrease in self-evaluations. In our experiment, the content presented were single Instagram
images, on a platform designed for survey data collection, and not via the Instagram
application. While this led to a decrease in self-rated attractiveness, increasing the
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 19
believability of these images as genuine social media posts in future research, perhaps by
presenting them in a real Instagram account, will likely reveal changes in psychological
wellbeing that are closer to those which occur during daily SNS use. Further, exploring the
specific content of Instagram posts, which may activate different psychological defense
mechanisms, would also help to clarify the extent to which exposure to Instagram is linked
with wellbeing.
General Discussion
The significant relationship between Instagram use and the psychological outcomes
measured in part one of our study, as well as the decrease in self-rated physical attractiveness
after exposure to beauty and fitness images in part two of our study, is in line with the wealth
of research on the links between Facebook use and psychological outcomes, and the
emerging literature on the links between Instagram use and psychological outcomes. This
research implies that excessive exposure to Instagram can be damaging to users, especially
when they engage in negative social comparisons. Exposure to content of idealistic beauty
and fitness standards could be harmful in the long-term, considering the achievement of many
of these ideals is unrealistic. This may be of particular importance in adolescents, who are
heavy users of social media, and engage in more social comparisons than do older adults.
Despite some limitations, this study is important as it demonstrated a link between
time spent on Instagram and a wide range of psychological wellbeing variables, which has
not been explored extensively in the literature. Further, it implies that even brief exposure to
idealistic images can result in re-evaluations of self-rated attractiveness, and therefore that
chronic exposure may lead to more long-term changes in psychological wellbeing. Increased
awareness of the impact of social comparisons on social media can be helpful to
understanding the psychological wellbeing of young females who may be struggling to
establish their identity, and may seek out comparison material on SNS’s (see Shapiro &
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 20
Morgolin, 2014, for discussion). Our study complements research showing that excessive
social media use can have an effect on psychological wellbeing. Given Instagram’s
popularity, it is unrealistic to expect individual’s to cease use of the application. Therefore,
research should focus on developing guidelines that outline the potential risks associated with
excessive Instagram (and other social media) use. Providing users with more information
about how their comparisons may moderate the effect of social media use on psychological
wellbeing may help users make more informed choices. Further research examining other
moderating or protective factors would therefore be valuable.
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public,
commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 21
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Tables and Figures
Table 1. Descriptive statistics for each scale, plus correlations between scales.
Descriptive Statistics
Pearson's correlation coefficients
M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Time spent on Instagram
2.65 1.65 ---
2. Number of accounts followed 7.06 2.69 0.58** ---
3. Number of followers 6.97 2.43 0.53** 0.77** ---
4. Depressive symptoms 22.65 12.77 0.49** 0.21* 0.22* ---
5. Trait anxiety 49.88 11.93 0.42** 0.30** 0.28** 0.81** ---
6. Physical appearance anxiety 41.55 13.47 0.47** 0.29** 0.16 0.48** 0.59** ---
7. Body image disturbance 16.91 6.62 0.33** 0.26* 0.16 0.48** 0.63** 0.64** ---
8. Self-rated attractiveness 8.21 2.91 -0.11 -0.05 0.11 -0.26** -0.49** -0.48** -0.56** ---
9. Self-esteem 59.91 17.77 -0.47** -0.24** -0.18* -0.74** -0.84** -075** -0.65** 0.55** ---
10. Social comparison 40.17 7.22 0.42** 0.25** 0.15 0.43** 0.59** 0.57** 0.43** -0.28** -0.62**
Note: **p<.01, *p<.05
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 27
Table 2. Correlations between change in self-rated attractiveness after exposure to beauty or
fitness images and psychological wellbeing measures.
Change in self-rated appearance
Depressive
symptoms
-0.37**
Trait anxiety -0.32*
Physical appearance
anxiety
-0.55**
Body image
disturbance
-0.35**
Self-esteem 0.51**
Social comparison -0.33*
**p<.01, *p<.05
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 28
FIGURE TO COME
Figure 1. Stimulus example.
Figure 2. Mediation models including coefficient weights and model effect sizes for the
relationship between Instagram use and psychological wellbeing outcomes. Dotted lines
show coefficient weights for the direct relationship prior to mediation by social comparison.
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001.
INSTAGRAM USE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING 29
Time on
Instagram Depressive
symptoms
Social
Comparison
Orientation
B = .46***, se = .14
B = 1.74***, se = .38
B = 2.57***, se = .66
B = 3.38***, se = .64
Mediation effect size = 0.81, p < .01; n = 128
Total model F(3,124) = 20.24, p < .001, R2 = 0.57
a)
Time on
Instagram Self-esteem
Social
Comparison
Orientation
B = -4.59***, se = .90
B = 1.74***, se = .38
B = -2.45*, se = .83
B = -4.59***, se = .89
Mediation effect size = .25, p < .001; n = 128
Total model F(3, 124) = 34.39, p < .001, R2 = 0.67
b)
Time on
Instagram Trait Anxiety
Social
Comparison
Orientation
B = .77***, se = .14
B = 1.97***, se = .43
B = .79, se = .65
B = 2.32***, se = .670
Mediation effect size = 1.53, p < .001; n = 95
Total model F(3, 91) = 24.93, p < .001, R2 = 0.67
c)
Time on
Instagram
Physical
appearance
anxiety
Social
Comparison
Orientation
B = .0.85***, se = .14
B = .1.73***, se = .38
B = 2.70***, se = .66
B = .4.17***, se = .69
Mediation effect size = 1.47, p < .001; n = 127
Total model F(3, 123) = 28.27, p < .001, R2 = 0.64
d)
Time on
Instagram
Body image
disturbance
Social
Comparison
Orientation
B = .37***, se = .096
B = 1.74***, se = .38
B = .67, se = .37
B = 1.24***, se = .36
Mediation effect size = 0.56, p < .01; n = 128
Total model F(3, 124) = 10.99, p < .001, R2 = 0.46
e)
