FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS:
The above bar chart demonstrates the respondents’ satisfaction levels with their current body types and their preferences for their desired body types. Over 75% of women desired a slimmer body type, while only 28.6% of men desired this body image. While only 4.9% of women desired a bulkier body type, almost one-third, or 31.2%, of men desired a bulkier build. More men than women were satisfied with their body types.
These scatterplots demonstrate the relationship between the frequency of the respondents' social media use and their levels of satisfaction with their body images. To calculate a respondent's level of satisfaction with his or her body image, we subtracted one's perceived body image value from one's ideal body image value (see graphic below). The more negative the value, the more the individual desires a slimmer body. The more positive the value, the more the respondent desires a bulkier body. The larger the absolute value, or the further the value is from zero, the less satisfied the individual is with his or her own body image. Blue points indicate females, while orange points indicate males. The size of the point reflects the number of respondents.
In our survey, we asked respondents to choose the images that most accurately represented their body types (on a scale from 1 to 9). We then asked respondents to choose the images that represented their ideal body types (on the same scale). We calculated each respondent’s satisfaction with his or her body type by subtracting the perceived body image value from the ideal body image value.
Body image satisfaction vs. frequency of social media use
From our data, we found most individuals were not satisfied with their body types. Over half of the females surveyed desired slimmer body types, and more males than females desired bulkier body types. We also found that those who used social media more frequently were less satisfied with their body images, allowing us to conclude that there is a direct relationship between the frequency of an individual’s social media use and the individual’s body image perception. The more the individual used social media, the less satisfied he or she was with their body image.
We were also able to compare body image satisfaction and the frequency of social media use on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Snapchat. It is clear that a correlation exists between the satisfaction with body image amongst those individuals who used platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and the frequency of their use on these platforms. We did not find these strong correlations amongst those who frequently used Twitter or Tumblr.
Part 1:
Respondents' Desired Body Types
Part 2:
We noticed that on average, men and women differed when asked how shape and weight influences their self-perception. When asked about the influence of their weight, most men said it did little to influence their self-perception whereas most women said weight somewhat influenced their self-perception. As for the influence of physical shape, more men said it somewhat influenced their self-perception whereas more women said it did influence their self-perception. Overall, both most men and women’s self perception fell in between being not at all and very much influenced by their shape and weight. For both questions, men and women only overlapped in that the 3rd least amount of men and women said their self-perception was only somewhat influenced by their shape for all other options, men and women were influenced differently by shape and weight.
This bar chart demonstrates the percentages of both females and males who were asked if their physical shape influenced their perceptions of themselves as people. Respondents were asked to rank this on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 representing the fact that their physical shape did not influence their self-perception, and 5 representing the fact that their physical shape influenced their self-perception very much. Females are shown in red and males are shown in blue.
This bar chart demonstrates the percentages of both females and males who were asked if their weight influenced their perceptions of themselves as people. Respondents were asked to rank this on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 representing the fact that their weight did not influence their self-perception, and 5 representing the fact that their weight influenced their self-perception very much. Females are shown in green and males are shown in purple.