Inspiration for Perspiration? Two Experiments Testing the Psychological Effects of Fitspiration

Karsay, Kathrin
Thomas, Marina F.
Matthes, Jörg

Department of Communication, University of Vienna
Research Centre Transitional Psychiatry, Karl Landsteiner Privatuniversität für Gesundheitswissenschaften

Nancy Rhodes served as action editor.

We confirm that the material has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. We would like to thank Marina Coric and Jessica Knoll for their help in conducting the study. All authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Kathrin Karsay served as lead for formal analysis, methodology, project administration, supervision, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing and contributed equally to visualization. Marina F. Thomas contributed equally to formal analysis, project administration, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing. Jörg Matthes contributed equally to resources and served in a supporting role for writing–original draft and writing–review and editing. Marina F. Thomas and Jörg Matthes contributed equally to conceptualization and methodology.

Kathrin Karsay, Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Vienna, Austria [email protected]

Received December 21, 2021

revised April 3, 2025

Accepted April 28, 2025

Psychology of Popular Media 14(3):p 339-353, July 2025. | DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000605

The rise of social media has coincided with the growing popularity of “fitspiration” imagery, which showcases idealized physiques and fitness-related content. Specifically, we sought to examine the differences between exposure to athletic and thin bodies versus purely muscular bodies. We conducted two experiments to investigate how exposure to fitspiration imagery affects women’s body image, beliefs, and behavioral intentions about exercise and diet. Furthermore, we investigated the moderating role of women’s trait body appreciation. We randomly assigned young women to one of three experimental conditions: fitspiration images of athletic women, fitspiration images of hypermuscular women, or appearance-neutral (i.e., travel) images. In Study 1 (n = 213, M_age = 22.69), exposure to hypermuscular fitspiration led to a higher intention to exercise among women with high levels of trait body appreciation. In Study 2 (n = 375, M_age = 22.43), we found no effects of fitspiration images of either type on the intention to exercise or diet. However, in women with low levels of trait body appreciation, hypermuscular images triggered lower body shape control beliefs compared to the other two conditions. In both experiments, we found no short-term effects of fitspiration images on women’s state body satisfaction. Contrasting evidence from most studies on fitspiration, this study reveals subtle to no effects following brief exposure to fitspiration imagery on women’s perceptions and behaviors regarding their bodies. It further suggests that the influence of fitspiration images depends on women’s existing levels of body appreciation and the ideals of beauty being promoted.