Body Positivity (or ‘BoPo’) social media content may be beneficial for women’s mood and body image, but concerns have been raised that it may reduce motivation for healthy behaviours. This study examines differences in women’s mood, body satisfaction, and hypothetical food choices after viewing BoPo posts (featuring average or larger women) or a neutral travel control. Women (N = 167, 81.8 % aged 18–29) were randomly assigned in an online experiment to one of three conditions (BoPo-average, BoPo-larger, or Travel/Control) and viewed three Instagram posts for two minutes, before reporting their mood and body satisfaction, and selecting a meal from a hypothetical menu. Women who viewed the BoPo posts featuring average-size women reported more positive mood than the control group; women who viewed posts featuring larger women did not. There were no effects of condition on negative mood or body satisfaction. Women did not make less healthy food choices than the control in either BoPo condition; women who viewed the BoPo images of larger women showed a stronger association between hunger and calories selected. These findings suggest that concerns over BoPo promoting unhealthy behaviours may be misplaced, but further research is needed regarding women’s responses to different body sizes.

Body Positivity（或“BoPo”）社交媒体内容可能有益于女性的情绪和身体形象，但有人担心它可能会降低健康行为的动机。本研究调查了女性在查看 BoPo 帖子（以平均或更大的女性为特色）或中性旅行控制后的情绪、身体满意度和假设食物选择的差异。女性（N = 167，81.8% 年龄在 18-29 岁之间）在在线实验中被随机分配到三个条件之一（BoPo-average、BoPo-larger 或 Travel/Control），并在报告之前查看三个 Instagram 帖子两分钟他们的情绪和身体满意度，并从假设的菜单中选择一顿饭。观看 BoPo 帖子的女性比对照组更积极；查看过以大个子女性为主题的帖子的女性没有。条件对消极情绪或身体满意度没有影响。在两种 BoPo 条件下，女性选择的健康食物并不比对照组差；看过 BoPo 大个子女性图片的女性显示，饥饿感与所选卡路里之间的关联性更强。这些发现表明，对 BoPo 促进不健康行为的担忧可能是错误的，但需要进一步研究女性对不同体型的反应。