Insta-Grams: The Effect of Consumer Weight on Reactions to Healthy Food Posts

Each day, social networking sites become increasingly inundated with food imagery. Since many of these images are of fresh, vibrant, and healthy eats, photo sharing of food through social media should have a long-term positive effect on consumption habits. Yet, obesity rates in the United States continue to rise, suggesting that people are spending more time posting images of healthy foods and paying less attention to the actual foods they consume. This confounding relationship could be explained by consumer weight, in that overweight consumers desire to engage with social media maybe for the purpose of expressing, presenting, and identifying with a healthy lifestyle. In the context of food posts, individuals higher in body mass index may be more likely to engage in social media activity (e.g., likes, shares, comments) that validates healthy food choices to others in their online community. A between-subjects experimental design tested this proposed effect using a manipulated Instagram post of a healthy food item (i.e., black bean veggie burger). Results indicate that obese individuals are more likely to engage with healthy food posts compared with their normal weight and overweight counterparts. The effect is even more pronounced when posts are absent of prior social media activity. Based upon these results, obese individuals are encouraged to establish and maintain social network connections with others who routinely post images of healthy food in their social media feeds. Limitations and directions for future research are provided.