---
title: "Fitspiration vs Thinspiration: Effects on Body and Functionality Appreciation in Young Chinese Wom"
id: "plos-one-9-rethinking-fitspiration-in-social-media-experimental-insights-from-young"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-9-rethinking-fitspiration-in-social-media-experimental-insights-from-young"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "General"
source_name: "PLOS ONE (Medicine)"
source_url: "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357611"
published_at: "2026-09-03T14:00:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Journal Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# Fitspiration vs Thinspiration: Effects on Body and Functionality Appreciation in Young Chinese Wom
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-9-rethinking-fitspiration-in-social-media-experimental-insights-from-young
- **Specialty:** [General](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/general.md)
- **Primary Source:** PLOS ONE (Medicine)
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357611)
- **Published At:** 2026-09-03T14:00:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Journal Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- This randomized online experiment with 414 Chinese women (age 18–26) compared reactions to **fitspiration**, **thinspiration**, and neutral scenery images. - Participants were randomly assigned to one of three image conditions and completed measures of body appreciation and functionality appreciation before and after exposure. - Results showed that viewing **fitspiration** images significantly reduced both body appreciation and functionality appreciation compared with neutral images. - **Thinspiration** images produced even larger decreases in body and functionality appreciation than fitspiration. - The findings align with prior experimental work from Western samples suggesting fitspiration can be as harmful as, or in some cases more harmful than, thinspiration for young women’s body image and mood. - The study highlights a research gap: most prior work focused on Western populations, whereas East Asian beauty standards differ and may shape responses to body-related social media content. - The authors argue for critical attention to the potential harms of fitspiration in the Chinese cultural context and note that fitspiration often emphasizes appearance and sexualized portrayals rather than true body functionality. - Data cannot be publicly shared due to confidentiality agreements; access requests can be directed to the Universiti Malaya Research Ethics Committee (UMREC). - No specific funding was reported and the authors declared no competing interests.
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
Rethinking fitspiration in social media: Experimental insights from young Chinese women | PLOS One Browse Subject Areas ? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here . Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Reader Comments Figures Figures Abstract As social media platforms increasingly influence contemporary understandings of health and the body, fitspiration—a blend of “fitness” and “inspiration”—has become a widespread visual genre that promotes exercise, discipline, and culturally idealized physiques. Recent research has linked fitspiration content to negative body image among women, yet most studies focus on Western populations. Cultural differences in beauty ideals suggest that findings from Western contexts may not fully apply to Asian women. However, research on fitspiration in Asia, particularly China, remains limited. To address this gap, this study conducted an online experiment with 414 Chinese women aged 18–26, randomly assigned to view thinspiration, fitspiration, or neutral scenery images. Body appreciation and functionality appreciation were measured before and after exposure. Results showed that fitspiration images significantly reduced both body and functionality appreciation compared to neutral images. Thinspiration images produced even lower body and functionality appreciation than fitspiration. This study underscores the need to recognize and critically examine the potential risks of fitspiration content within the Chinese cultural context. Citation: Song S, Du J, Wei H, Ibrahim MS, Adnan HM (2026) Rethinking fitspiration in social media: Experimental insights from young Chinese women. PLoS One 21(9): e0357611. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357611 Editor: Jiankun Gong, Universiti Malaya, MALAYSIA Received: July 24, 2025; Accepted: August 19, 2026; Published: September 3, 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Song et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: Data cannot be shared publicly because of confidentiality agreements stated in the ethics approval. Data are available from the Universiti Malaya Research Ethics Committee (UMREC) (contact via umrec@um.edu.my ) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data. The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from the Universiti Malaya Research Ethics Committee (UMREC) (contact via umrec@um.edu.my ). Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction Social media and negative body image In recent years, numerous studies have argued that social media use reinforces negative body image perceptions among women [ 1 ]. One of the most influential factors is the pervasive presence of ideal body images on social media [ 2 ]. A striking example is “thinspiration” (a combination of “thin” and “inspiration”), which refers to images, quotes, and content intended to inspire extreme thinness [ 3 ]. According to sociocultural theory, repeated exposure to idealized images may cause individuals to internalize unattainable beauty standards and pursue them [ 4 , 5 ]. This process often leads to upward appearance-based comparisons, thereby exacerbating self-body dissatisfaction [ 6 , 7 ]. Moreover, the effect is particularly pronounced when women experience a discrepancy between their own appearance and the ideal but are unable to close that gap, leading to a decline in well-being, mental health issues (such as depression and anxiety), excessive dieting, and eating disorders [ 8 , 9 ]. These negative impacts are especially severe among young women who frequently use social media and have higher appearance-related expectations [ 10 ]. Fitspiration To address these issues, various body positive approaches were applied to promote body appreciation, which has been recognized as an effective way to protect against exposure to idealized media content [ 11 ]. However, the most represented ways of promoting positive body image in the media (e.g., body diversity) have been criticized to still emphasizing on appearances, with the ignorance of body capabilities [ 12 , 13 ]. Body functionality theory suggests that focusing on “what body can do” rather than “how it looks” can increase body and functionality appreciation [ 14 ]. In response, “fitspiration,” a combination of “fit” and “inspiration,” was initially regarded as a healthier alternative to “thinspiration” [ 11 , 15 ]. The movement seeks to encourage individuals to enhance their bodies through healthy lifestyle behaviors such as exercise and healthy eating [ 15 ]. Typical fitspiration images depict individuals dressed in athletic attire, posing or engaging in exercise in various contexts, often accompanied by motivational text or content related to healthy eating [ 15 ]. Theoretically, fitspiration has the potential to promote a more positive body image [ 16 ]. According to the Developmental Theory of Embodiment (DTE), physical experience plays a key role in shaping body image, and a supportive environment for sports or physical health care can encourage healthier living, or lifestyles [ 17 – 19 ]. From this perspective, fitspiration’s emphasis on physical activity and healthy living holds the potential to foster a more positive body image. However, content analyses of fitspiration images have raised concerns regarding their impact on women’s body image. While fitspiration emphasizes fitness and health, it is still predominantly focused on displaying “thin” bodies [ 20 ]. Additionally, the ultimate goal of fitspiration’s promotion of exercise and healthy eating is often to enhance appearance rather than health itself [ 21 ]. Furthermore, fitspiration images frequently portray sexualized representations of women, such as images featuring women in revealing yoga outfits highlighting their physical features [ 22 ]. Therefore, although fitspiration appears to promote healthy lifestyles and body positive ideals, its actual content largely revolves around the thin body ideal and fails to genuinely represent diverse body types [ 20 ]. Moreover, its emphasis on exercise and healthy eating is often directed toward enhancing appearance rather than prioritizing health itself [ 21 ]. This indicates that fitspiration does not truly align with the core tenet of body functionality theory, which emphasizes what the body can do rather than how it looks. Instead, it uses the language of functionality to reinforce appearance-focused norms, contradicting the principles of the DTE, which advocates for building positive body image through embodied physical experience [ 18 ]. In addition, fitspiration content frequently features sexualized portrayals of women through tight or revealing athletic wear and posed imagery [ 22 ], reinforcing objectifying views of the female body. Over time, such appearance-oriented content may lead to greater internalization of thin-ideal norms and increased self-objectification among women, thereby trapping them in a cycle of appearance-related anxiety [ 23 , 24 ]. To date, most experimental findings have confirmed these concerns. Studies indicate that fitspiration and thinspiration have very similar content, which concentrates on skinny and toned bodies [ 20 , 25 , 26 ]. Jeronimo and Carraca [ 16 ] published a systematic review including 20 studies in recent years regarding the effects of fitspiration content on body image, the result suggests that viewing fitspiration content always relates to greater levels of body dissatisfaction, negative moods, and appearance comparison tendencies like thinspiration does. Moreover, Russell [ 27 ] suggests that fitspiration content is not only as harmful as thinspiration content with regard to body image dissatisfaction and self-esteem, but may be more harmful than thinspiration with regard to inducing negative moods. Meanwhile, Dignard and Jarry [ 26 ] suggest that the negative impact of fitspiration cannot be offset by positive body images in the same manner as thinspiration, which suggests that fitspiration may be more harmful than thinspiration, especially among young women. These studies provide evidence that viewing fitspiration content is significantly associated with negative body perceptions, and this negative impact may be greater than that of thinspiration. The rationale for the study From a review of past experiments, this research paper found that most studies were focused on Western samples, particularly young Caucasian women. However, the beauty standards of East Asian societies differ significantly from those in Western countries [ 28 ]. Unlike South or Central Asian countries, East Asian countries have experienced less colonial history [ 29 ]. As a result, local beauty standards are not entirely dependent on Eurocentric ideals but are more influenced by traditional culture and other East Asian countries [ 29 ]. For example, traditional Chinese aesthetics, largely viewed through a patriarchal lens, idealise the image of a delicate, frail Oriental women, emphasising slender and petite physiques [ 30 ]. Additionally, Japan’s Kawaii [cute] culture instills the belief that “women must be kawaii (cute)” from a young age [ 31 ] and, as a part of J-pop, has influenced beauty standards in other Asian countries [ 32 ]. Ultimately, East Asian beauty standards tend to portray women as youthful and innocent [ 29 ]. Therefore, while both East Asian and Western beauty standards emphasize “youthful” and “thin” ideals, they fundamentally differ in that East Asia’s interpretation of “youthful” and “thin” is more focused on conveying cuteness and innocence [ 29 ]. Due to cultural differences, societal beauty ideals in East Asian countries, including China, often diverge from those in Western societies [ 26 ]. Individuals from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds may respond to fitspiration through distinct psychological mechanisms [ 26 ]. In particular, East Asian women may prioritize thinness over functionality when exposed to fitspiration content, reflecting cultural norms that emphasize slenderness as a key aspect of attractiveness [ 33 ]. This highlights the need for more cross-cultural studies [ 34 ]. Further, studies have shown that Asian media tends to place a stronger emphasis on appearance than Western media, and that Asian women are more strongly influenced by media images from their own cultural context [ 35 ]. Given the above background, the present study focuses on mainland China and aims to explore Chinese women’s responses to fitspiration images from a culturally informed perspective. To date, research on this topic in mainland China is limited. One study by Hong Kong scholars examined fitspiration’s impact on sexual minorities, finding associations with body surveillance and shame [ 36 ]. However, the sample size was limited to sexual minorities and women were not the primary focus of the research. Another qualitative study by Lee [ 37 ] analyzed Chinese fitspiration content and its gendered effects. One of the interesting findings was that men showed greater anxiety when dealing with fitspiration, while women showed admiration, which contrasts with previous studies conducted on Western samples [ 16 , 37 ]. While this study yields insightful and novel findings on the effects of fitspiration in the Chinese context, its conclusions are limited by its small sample size of only 20 participants [ 37 ]. Therefore, this study aims to increase the sample size and refine the previous findings through quantitative methods. The present study The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of fitspiration on the body image perception of young Chinese women. Based on the objective, two research questions were made: RQ1: To what extent does exposure to fitspiration imagery influence body image among young Chinese women? RQ2: In what ways does the effect of fitspiration image exposure on body image differ from that of thinspiration image exposure among young Chinese women? To answer the research questions and achieve the objective of the present study, the experiment assessed participants’ psychological indicators of body image (i.e., state body appreciation and body functionality appreciation level) before and after viewing fitspiration images, thinspiration images, and scenery images (as a control set). In the experiment, different visual stimuli served as the independent variables, while post-exposure state body appreciation and functionality appreciation of each visual set served as the dependent variables. Based on the findings of past studies, four hypotheses were made: H1: Viewing fitspiration images will negatively influence body appreciation among young Chinese women. H2: Viewing fitspiration images will lead to lower body appreciation compared to viewing thinspiration images among young Chinese women. H3: Viewing fitspiration images will negatively influence functionality appreciation among young Chinese women. H4: Viewing fitspiration images will lead to lower functionality appreciation compared to viewing thinspiration images among young Chinese women. Methods Participants The study employed a multistage recruitment strategy targeting female undergraduate students aged 18–26 years from three universities in mainland China (one public, one private, and one vocational institution) to ensure diversity in educational backgrounds. A total of 432 participants were successfully recruited, yielding a response rate of 73%. The final sample (after exclusion, n = 414) had a mean age of 20.26 years ( SD = 1.88) and an average BMI of 20.56 ( SD = 3.86). All participants were Chinese citizens who self-identified as Asian Chinese. Participant recruitment was conducted via institutional email invitations, which included a study information sheet and survey link, followed by two reminders at one-week intervals. Eligible candidates were identified through university enrollment records and randomly selected using an SPSS-generated random number sequence. Eligibility was confirmed through (a) demographic self-reports (age, gender, ethnicity) and (b) embedded attention-check items within the survey instrument. Any initially selected participants who failed to meet eligibility criteria were excluded and replaced using the same randomization procedures. Data collection was carried out using the Wenjuanxing (WJX.cn) online survey platform, which offered real-time tracking of response status, IP address verification, timestamp monitoring, and automatic detection of incomplete submissions. The system maintained 100% sensitivity in identifying invalid or partial responses. No protocol violations or technical issues were recorded during the data collection period. Materials Independent variables: visual stimulus. The visual stimulus was used as independent variables in the experiment. They were split into three categories: (a) thinspiration images; (b) fitspiration images; and (c) scenery images (control group). Xiaohongshu is a leading appearance-based social media platform in China, with a predominantly young female user base [ 38 ]. It has been criticized for reinforcing unrealistic beauty standards through curated user-generated content, often featuring slim figures, flawless skin, and facial symmetry enhanced by photo editing [ 39 , 40 ]. Its algorithmic design promotes idealized images through features such as the tagging system and the Explore page, which prioritizes aesthetically appealing content [ 41 ]. These mechanisms foster upward appearance comparisons and body dissatisfaction [ 40 ]. Therefore, images used in this study were selected from Xiaohongshu to enhance ecological validity. To ensure the accuracy of model image selections, this study followed the content criteria for thinspiration and fitspiration images outlined by Boepple and Thompson [ 20 ] and Lee [ 37 ]. Thinspiration images featured content related to weight or fat loss, praise for thinness, and thin body poses, while fitspiration images depicted bodies with visible muscle definition and athletic activity intended to inspire fitness. In addition, to reflect real social media usage, all images were selected from accounts with a large following or a high view count. In line with Williamson and Karazsia [ 42 ], the models’ faces were blurred to prevent bias based on facial appearance or recognition, which could influence the participants’ responses. This precaution helped eliminate potential bias from knowing the models. Moreover, models’ outfits were standardised to ensure consistency. For fitspiration images, models wore yoga outfits exposing their abdomen and body lines, while thinspiration images featured models in clothing that revealed a certain amount of skin (e.g., bikini). Prior to the main experiment, a pilot evaluation was conducted to pretest and finalize the model image stimuli. A total of 10 young Chinese women who were not involved in the main study participated in the screening process. They evaluated 40 images (20 thinspiration and 20 fitspiration) sourced from Chinese social media platforms, using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) ranging from 0 (not at all) to 100 (very much). Participants were instructed to rate each image based on how well it reflected key characteristics of either thinspiration (e.g., thinness, appearance-focused content) or fitspiration (e.g., muscularity, functionality or fitness-oriented content). Based on the average VAS ratings across participants, the 10 highest-rated model images in each category were selected for use in the main study, resulting in a final model involved stimulus set of 20 images. Dependent variable 1: post-exposure body appreciation. The State Body Appreciation Scale-2 (SBAS-2) was used as a psychological measure to assess participants’ momentary body image levels before and after exposure to the visual stimulus. SBAS-2 was adapted by Homan [ 43 ] from the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) developed by Tylka and Wood-Barcalow [ 13 ]. BAS-2 has demonstrated strong construct validity in assessing positive body image perceptions [ 44 ]. A study that thoroughly assessed the measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 countries, in 40 languages, which covered multiple gender identities, and age groups, confirmed that full scalar invariance was consistently upheld across these varied contexts [ 45 ]. Moreover, another study evaluating the Mandarin Chinese version of the BAS-2 in mainland China demonstrated strong construct validity, revealing positive correlations between body appreciation and self-esteem, self-compassion, and body satisfaction, as well as negative correlations with the Body Mass Index (BMI), weight discrepancy, negative effects, and body surveillance [ 46 ]. SBAS-2 modifies the BAS-2 by adding “right now” or “at this moment” to capture transient moods [ 43 ]. It retains a one-factor structure with strong validity and consistency, which is suited for assessing dynamic body appreciation [ 43 ]. Therefore, the Chinese version of SBAS-2 is suitable for use in the present study to assess the at-the-moment response of young Chinese women following their exposure to fitspiration images. Participants rated ten items from the Chinese version of SBAS-2 [ 43 , 47 ] both before and after viewing visual stimuli (see S1 Appendix ). The items included statements such as “Right now, I respect my body,” “At this moment, I feel good about my body,” and “Right now, I appreciate my body’s unique characteristics”. A five-point Likert Scale was used for participants to respond to each statement by selecting an option that best represented their current feelings: from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongl
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