A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Social Media Exposure to Upward Comparison Targets on Self-Evaluations and Emotions
McComb, Vanman and Tobin pooled forty-eight experimental studies, covering more than seven and a half thousand participants, that tested what happens when people are shown social media content from someone apparently doing better than them. Experiments matter here because most work on this question is correlational and cannot say which way the influence runs. Compared with seeing content from someone doing worse, or with a control, exposure to upward comparison made people feel worse about themselves, with a small but consistent effect. It appeared on every outcome examined separately: body image, subjective wellbeing, mental health and self-esteem, with body image the largest. The theoretical point they draw is that contrast rather than inspiration is the dominant response. Comparison upwards can in principle motivate, and on social media it mostly does not. The effects are small, which matters for how the finding should be reported, and they are measured immediately after exposure in laboratory conditions rather than over the course of a life.
McComb, Vanman and Tobin pooled forty-eight experimental studies, covering more than seven and a half thousand participants, that tested what happens when people are shown social media content from someone apparently doing better than them. Experiments matter here because most work on this question is correlational and cannot say which way the influence runs. Compared with seeing content from someone doing worse, or with a control, exposure to upward comparison made people feel worse about themselves, with a small but consistent effect. It appeared on every outcome examined separately: body image, subjective wellbeing, mental health and self-esteem, with body image the largest. The theoretical point they draw is that contrast rather than inspiration is the dominant response. Comparison upwards can in principle motivate, and on social media it mostly does not. The effects are small, which matters for how the finding should be reported, and they are measured immediately after exposure in laboratory conditions rather than over the course of a life.
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doi:10.1080/15213269.2023.2180647; and de Valle, M. K., Gallego-García, M., Williamson, P. & Wade, T. D. (2021). "Social media, body image, and the question of causation: Meta-analyses of experimental and longitudinal evidence." Body Image, 39, 276-292. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.10.001
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https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2180647
DOI: 10.1080/15213269.2023.2180647