A study publish Tuesday by the scientific journal PLOS One found that TikTok is dominate by heavily normative messages that lack an expert voice.
TikTok is dominate by weight-normative content. Which can lead to unhealthy eating habits or body image problems in teens and young adults, according to a new study.
A study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS One analyzed 1,000 videos on social media platforms across ten popular food. Fitness and nutrition hashtags, each of which had more than 1 billion views in 2020.
The researchers found that most of the viral content offering weight loss and healthy eating advice came from. White teenage influencers and was not supported by credible evidence.
Expert voices were characterized in this study as those who identify themselves as license nutritionists, doctors, or qualify trainers.
“We don’t see expert voices in this conversation,” Dr. Lizzie Pope, professor in the Department of Nutrition also Food Science at the University of Vermont and lead author, told the New York Post. “Very few doctors or nutritionists interact with this content. So basically, everyone shares their personal experience with the world, which can be valuable. But there’s so much malnutrition information out there that we have to be very careful. Pope adds that many of the videos studied promote weight loss or a certain height by “making it look straightforward, like. Do these five exercises, also you’re.’ Will lose 15 pounds in no time.'”
“It’s very spacious,” he told the outlet. “There are a lot of subliminal messages about what the body also food should look like to fit into the ideal of being thin. So many videos about trying to achieve a certain body shape hint at or just being skinny.”
Researchers warn that normative content on TikTok can lead to disordered eating behaviour.
“Helping consumers identify credible nutrition information and removing trigger content from their social media feeds could be a strategy to address the heavily normative social media content that is so prevalent,” the study said.