Viewing sexualized selfies has triggered unpleasant effects on young women

Creating hashtags increases the effect due to the focus on body parts

New research published in the journal Body Image sheds light on how images of peers on social media are sexualized , or not, influence young women’s perceptions of themselves and other people. The results of the study show that viewing sexualized images leads to increased self-objectification and a tendency to dehumanize the people depicted.

New research links exposure to sexually objectified images in the media to a variety of negative psychological consequences for women, such as increased self-esteem and mental health problems. Popular social networking platforms allow users not only to view content, but also to exert psychological influence.

“We were interested in understanding how young women react to their mainstream peers on social media,” said study author Megan A. Vendecia.

In contrast to traditional media portrayals of women, such as models and celebrities, social media platforms include women who are distinguished by their appearance and allow feedback on images through likes, comments and hashtags that can be seen by online audiences.

The study involved 256 young women aged 18 to 29 years enrolled in undergraduate courses at a large Midwestern university in the United States. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions depending on the type of images they viewed—sexualized peers, nonsexualized peers, or landscapes—and whether they were required to interact with the images by “liking” them or simply viewing them.

Each participant viewed 13 images adapted to the given conditions. The group was asked to generate up to five hashtags for each image, reflecting their immediate reactions and thoughts about the photographs. This assignment was designed to model how users typically interact with content on social media platforms. Another group was asked to look at the images and record their thoughts about them without creating any tags.

After viewing the pictures and the tagging task, participants completed the Twenty Statements Test, a psychological instrument used to assess self-esteem, which was adapted in this study to measure state self-esteem. The researchers measured dehumanization through participants' perceptions of human uniqueness and character traits attributed to women in the images.

Results showed that respondents exposed to sexualized images of peers reported significantly higher levels of self-objectification compared to those exposed to nonsexualized images or neutral landscapes. This indicates that the first type of content significantly influences viewers to think more about their appearance in the short term.

Interestingly, the hashtag creation process itself did not significantly change the level of self-objectification compared to those , who were simply viewing the images. However, those who viewed sexualized images tended to use more objectifying language in their hashtags, focusing more on body parts and appearance-related aspects. These behaviors highlight the interactive aspect of social media, where commenting or tagging can reinforce objectifying attitudes.

“Our findings illustrate the complexities of social media content production and consumption practices (e.g., sharing/viewing images, giving/receiving feedback) connections), especially for young women,” summarizes Vandemia in an interview with PsyPost.