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The number of individuals undergoing cosmetic surgery has increased rapidly in recent years. Considering the negative and positive impacts of these procedures, it is imperative to explore the possible influencing factors. According to the tripartite influence model and objectification theory, social media, as a form of new media, may relate to the intention of users to undergo cosmetic surgery (i.e. cosmetic surgery consideration CSC). Therefore, a three-level meta-analytic model was applied to quantitatively synthesize relevant studies to clarify the relationship between social media use (SMU) and CSC and to identify potential moderators. This study synthesized 24 articles with 96 effect sizes (N = 10,445) and reported an overall effect size of r = 0.21, 95% CI 0.13, 0.26. Type of SMU significantly moderated the correlation between SMU and CSC, with appearance-focused SMU being associated with higher willingness to undergo cosmetic surgery than general SMU. However, the correlation was not moderated by age, sex, BMI, country grouping, social media platforms, and study quality. These findings highlight that measures should be implemented to mitigate the negative impact of idealized content on social media and the need to prevent the blind pursuit of idealized appearances seen on social media.
Liu et al. (2026) studied this question.