Women who spend a lot of time on TikTok – especially those who watch a lot of anorexic content – ​​feel worse about their appearance, a new study shows. The results suggest that high TikTok presence can harm mental health, reduce satisfaction with one’s body image and increase the risk of eating disorders. Madison Blackburn and Rachel Hogg of Charles Sturt University in Australia present these findings in the open access journal PLUS ONE on August 7, 2024.

Since its launch, short-form video app TikTok has been downloaded more than 2 billion times. The app’s algorithm curates content on a “For You” page based on a user’s interactions with previous videos, and content that glorifies eating disorders and extremely thin body ideals can therefore quickly fill a user’s feed. To understand how TikTok content might affect women’s body image, Blackburn and Hogg surveyed 273 women between the ages of 18 and 28. They asked how frequently they used TikTok and screened them for symptoms of eating disorders, body image, their attitudes toward beauty ideals, and risk of orthorexia – a set of restricted diet and eating habits aimed at ridding oneself of “impure” or “unhealthy” foods or behaviors. The researchers then had half of the participants watch a 7-8 minute compilation of eating disorder content from TikTok – including young women starving themselves or giving weight loss tips, alongside juice cleanse and workout videos – while the other half of the participants watched neutral content with nature, cooking and animal themes.

Both groups reported lower satisfaction with their own body image after watching the videos, but those exposed to pro-anorexia-promoting content had the greatest decline and showed greater internalization of beauty ideals. Women who used TikTok for more than 2 hours per day reported more eating disorders, but the results were not significant. While the study did not address how exposure to pro-anorexia-promoting content might affect people over time, the results suggest that weight loss-focused TikTok content could have a negative impact on viewers’ body image and beauty ideals. The researchers recommend that pro-anorexia-promoting content on TikTok be better controlled.

The authors add: “Our study found that exposure to implicit and explicit pro-anorexia TikTok content for less than 10 minutes had immediate negative consequences on body image and internalization of beauty ideals. This suggests that psychological harm may occur among young female TikTok users even when explicit pro-anorexia content is not sought out and TikTok use is short-lived.“