In a groundbreaking study from 2017, Chatard et al found social comparison to be subliminal.
In the study women were shown images of thin women or heavy women at sub-conscious threshold viewing times of less than 20 milliseconds.
Even when they consciously didn’t register seeing them and weren’t able to make the comparison, the study found feeling good or bad about their bodies still consistently affected.
It means we can’t educate ourselves away from this.
We can of course alleviate some of the problems that follow, and we should. Social media provides way too many supermodel-shapes to push those buttons teenagers still don’t know how to react to.
And it is important for educators also to try and not ”talk some sense into the kids”, but promote healthy reactions to the inevitable.