Effects of Social Media Use Types on Cosmetic/Plastic Surgery Intention : Sequential Mediating Effects of Self-Image Discrepancy and Appearance Stress

This study structurally investigated the effect of social media usage types (passive and active) on appearance stress as well as cosmetic and plastic surgery intention through self-image inconsistency (self-view and other perspectives). The analysis revealed that active social media use had a negative effect on users’ self-perspective discrepancy, reducing it significantly, but did not have a significant effect on their other-perspective discrepancy. Conversely, passive social media use had a significant positive effect on both users’ self-perspective and other-perspective discrepancy; it was found that the process of repeated exposure to the idealized appearances of others promoted upward social comparison, thereby intensifying self-image discrepancy. In the relationship between self-image inconsistency and appearance stress, the influence of other people's perspective inconsistency was greater than self-view discrepancy, confirming that anxiety about social evaluation is a major factor behind appearance stress. In addition, appearance stress had a significant positive effect on cosmetic and plastic surgery intention. After verifying the mediating effect, the entire path leading to cosmetic and plastic surgery intention through self-image inconsistency and appearance stress was found to be significant for passive use, but insignificant for active use. This study empirically confirmed that Festinger(1954)'s social comparison theory and Higgins(1987)'s self-discrepancy theory work within a single integrated path, and revealed that appearance-related psychological results differ depending on the type of social media use, providing theoretical implications for the limitations of existing studies.