BU Research Blog

Dr Joanne Mayoh and Dr Ian Jones have had a new article “Young People’s Experiences of Engaging With Fitspiration on Instagram: Gendered Perspective” published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR; Impact Factor 5.43) https://www.jmir.org/2021/10/e17811/. Their study used a cross-sectional web-based survey (N=1213) to explore how young men and women engage in fitspiration content on Instagram, and found significant gendered differences in consumption behaviour. Their findings suggested that female fitspiration consumers engage with content that reinforces the feminine thin but shapely ideal, whereas male users seek out content that reinforces the masculine muscular ideal. Furthermore, male users are more likely to engage actively with content (eg, posting fitspiration content), while female users are more likely to engage passively (eg, scrolling through accounts, posts, or images). Here is an infographic to demonstrate their key findings.