EXPRESS: When no one is watching: No effects of brief social media model exposure on young women’s appearance enhancing behaviors

The adverse effects of social media have been widely studied, but most research focused on internalization of beauty standards, body attitudes, and self-enhancement intentions rather than observable behavioral responses. In this pre-registered experiment, female participants (n=164) were fitted with a head-mounted device, described as a head tracker, but actually a device designed to tousle their hair. Participants viewed either idealized social media models or neutral abstract paintings. After the device was removed, participants were left alone in a laboratory room for two minutes, while their natural behaviors were recorded. Recordings were then analyzed using BORIS software to assess mirror self-gazing, mirror self-fixation, and self-modification. Contrary to predictions, no significant behavioral differences emerged between conditions and observed effect sizes were substantially smaller than anticipated. These null findings suggest several possibilities: brief exposure to idealized models is insufficient to elicit immediate appearance-related behaviors; long-term exposure to social media has already been internalized so additional short exposures produce a change smaller than expected; and/or our behavioral indices lacked sensitivity to detect small effects. We conclude that future studies should assess cumulative exposure, employ more sensitive measures, and sample populations with lower prior social-media experience.