(STUDY FINDS) -- TORONTO — Social media remains under the mental health microscope for its potential effects on users, particularly younger and more vulnerable segments. In a recent study conducted at York University in Toronto, researchers say many young women feel badly about their bodies after logging on and viewing images of friends they perceive to be more attractive.
Images posted to social media are often far from reality, but this research is among the first to analyze how all of these unrealistic pictures impact young women’s views on their own bodies. Researchers monitored young women between 18 and 27 years old who liked or commented on photos of people they believe to be more attractive than themselves.
“The results showed that these young adult women felt more dissatisfied with their bodies,” says co-lead researchers Jennifer Mills, an associate psychology professor at York, in a university release. “They felt worse about their own appearance after looking at social media pages of someone that they perceived to be more attractive than them. Even if they felt bad about themselves before they came into the study, on average, they still felt worse after completing the task.”
Advertisement - story continues below
