ABSTRACT. The objective of this paper is to systematically review images on social media depicting unrealistic beauty ideals. The findings and analyses highlight that social media appearance pressures and esteem configure thin-ideal internalization and body comparison. Throughout January 2022, a quantitative literature review of the Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases was performed, with search terms including “social media appearance pressures” + “body image concerns,” “harmful self-objectification processes,” and “negative appearance evaluations.” As research published between 2021 and 2022 was inspected, only 137 articles satisfied the eligibility criteria. By taking out controversial or ambiguous findings (insufficient/irrelevant data), outcomes unsubstantiated by replication, too general material, or studies with nearly identical titles, I selected 25 mainly empirical sources. Data visualization tools: Dimensions (bibliometric mapping) and VOSviewer (layout algorithms). Reporting quality assessment tool: PRISMA. Methodological quality assessment tools include: AMSTAR, Dedoose, Distiller SR, and SRDR.

Keywords: social media photo manipulation; idealized body image; negative appearance evaluation

How to cite: Rice, L. (2022). “Social Media Appearance Pressures, Body Image Concerns, and Harmful Self-Objectification Processes,” Journal of Research in Gender Studies 12(1): 24–38. doi: 10.22381/JRGS12120222.

Received 22 February 2022 • Received in revised form 17 July 2022
Accepted 21 July 2022 • Available online 30 July 2022