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Social media use has been linked to body image concerns and engagement in appearance-altering behaviours in men. The present online study aimed to experimentally examine the impact of idealised TikTok content on body satisfaction, nutrition satisfaction, fitness satisfaction, and intentions to use muscle-building substances in young men. A sample of 282 participants who identified as male were randomly allocated to one of three conditions (fitness, supplement, travel control). After completing baseline measures of body image, nutrition, and fitness satisfaction, and intentions to use muscle-building supplements, participants viewed TikTok content that either promoted fitness, supplement use, or travel. Participants completed the same measures post-exposure to determine any causal effect of the TikTok content. Planned comparisons revealed that exposure to idealised content (fitness and supplement) significantly decreased nutrition satisfaction and increased intentions to use creatine. Viewing fitness content relative to viewing supplement content also significantly decreased in fitness satisfaction and increased intentions to use creatine. In addition, drive for muscularity moderated the relationships between TikTok content and nutrition satisfaction and intentions to use anabolic-androgenic steroids. Furthermore, social appearance comparison mediated all relationships. The present findings have implications for understanding how men interact with social media content, as well as the development of intervention programs around social media for men.
Beos et al. (Sun,) studied this question.