Impact of Thin-Ideals in Influencer Posts Promoting Healthy vs. Unhealthy Foods on Tweens' Healthy Food Choice Behavior

Steffi De Jans, Liselot Hudders, Brigitte Naderer, Valentina De Pauw
2022 Frontiers in Psychology  
The current study examines how social media influencers can be deployed to promote healthy food choice behavior among tweens. In particular, we investigated whether tweens' healthy food choice behavior can be stimulated by using a thin-ideal influencer in a sponsored influencer post promoting unhealthy vs. healthy food. A two-by-two, between-subjects experimental study (influencer weight: thin-ideal vs. overweight; snack-type: unhealthy vs. healthy) was conducted with 146 tweens (11–13 years
more » ... , 73 boys). Results show that tweens' choice for a healthy snack was higher when a (female) overweight influencer promoted an unhealthy snack (compared to a healthy snack). Using a thin-ideal influencer promoting an unhealthy vs. healthy snack did not affect tweens' healthy food choices. While there were no interaction effects of influencer weight and snack type on source effects (influencer credibility, influencer admiration, and trans-parasocial interactions), the results did show that the influencer was perceived as less credible and was admired less when she was overweight vs. when she had a thin-ideal body-type.
doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.789069 pmid:35478748 pmcid:PMC9037281 fatcat:gqo3yoyzg5g6xnr3sh62vv3z3u