Looking at images of cosmetically enhanced celebrities on social media risks encouraging young women to have similar procedures, according to a scientific study.
University College London psychologists aimed to discover whether exposure to such images increased “body dissatisfaction” and an interest in having aesthetic work on their faces among 180 female participants.
They found the women taking part, university undergraduates aged 18 to 29, considered cosmetic surgery more when they had increased exposure to pictures of the faces of aesthetically altered celebrities.
One set of women were shown Instagram images of 15 celebrities — including reality TV star Kylie Jenner, the rapper Iggy Azalea and singer Tulisa.
A second set of women were shown cityscape pictures of London, Paris and Dublin before being asked the same questions, so as not to skew the results. To further eliminate bias, the study was originally “masked” as a survey about Instagram and memory recall.
After viewing their respective sets of images, all participants were asked to assess “dissatisfaction with their appearance”, their mood and “desire to undergo cosmetic enhancement”, from “not at all” to “extremely”.
Participants were then shown the five facial cosmetic procedures which are most popular among young adult women, such as Botox, and were asked how likely they would be to undergo any, if money was no object.
Results showed participants who had viewed images of cosmetically enhanced stars showed “a tendency for an increased desire for cosmetic surgery”, compared with those who had viewed the pictures of city buildings. Participants who said they were heavier social media scrollers in their everyday lives, followed many accounts and were dissatisfied with how they looked, were even more likely to consider cosmetic surgery. And the less satisfied participants were with their appearance, the more likely they were to consider surgery.
Study leaders Candice Walker and Dr Eva Krumhuber said: “By alerting these women to the influence that online images can have on their behaviours and body image, we can improve their psycho-social functioning.”
The UCL team hope their findings feed into screening at cosmetic surgery clinics to “better assess clients’ motivations for the surgery and their psychological functioning”.
Celebrities whose images were used were chosen because they have all previously admitted to having had “facial cosmetic enhancements”.
Billionaire Jenner, 22, has said she has had fillers but not plastic surgery. Azalea, 29, has admitted to having a nose job. Tulisa, 31, has admitted “getting carried away” with aesthetic treatments.
