Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Facebook knew that celebrity posts made Instagram users feel worse

Facebook knew that celebrity posts made Instagram users feel worse

Internal research by Facebook found that some celebrities posted photos that made their followers have a worse self-image.

The more you see celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Justin Bieber in your Instagram feed, the more likely you are to have a worse self-image, a leaked Facebook research document says.

The research, revealed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) this week, found that people who followed some of Instagram's biggest social media stars including the Kardashians, Ariana Grande and Katy Perry experienced more negative social comparison, meaning they compared themselves unfavourably to the celebrity images they were seeing.

By contrast, followers of Will Smith, Brazillian footballer Neymar and film star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson reported feeling less negative social comparison, Facebook's researchers found.

Almost half the content people see on Instagram comes from celebrities, the research said.

Footballer Neymar at a fashion event in Paris.


"[We] may want to offer people the option to hide celebrities temporarily," a member of Facebook staff commented on the document released by the WSJ.

While celebrities' Instagram posts tended to make people feel worse, their Instagram Stories had the opposite effect, leading Facebook's researchers to wonder if the disappearing message format was associated with more positive feelings due to its "unpolished" style.

Teenagers most affected


The research, entitled "Social comparison on Instagram," surveyed 100,000 people in March and April 2020 in nine countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Teenagers were more prone to negative social comparison than adults, the research found.

In general, women and teenage girls were more likely to experience negative social comparison, the research said. The only exception to that trend among the nine countries featured in the document were Indian men.

Another strong driver of negative social comparison for Instagram users were posts with more likes than a user's own, as well as heavily edited selfies and beautifying filters.

Instagram introduced the option to hide likes on posts earlier this year. According to the report, opting in to hide likes - described in internal Facebook language as "Pure Daisy" - led to a two per cent reduction in negative social comparison on average.

Fixing Instagram


The research report also gives some insight into how Facebook hoped to solve the issue of negative social comparison on Instagram.

A series of suggestions includes the option to hide likes - which the company implemented earlier this year.

Other suggestions included encouraging "top accounts" to "share more vulnerable content" and finding ways to reduce users' exposure to the kinds of posts that were most associated with negative comparisons.

The researchers also suggested that the company works with celebrities whose followers experienced the highest levels of negative comparison to produce "realness campaigns" to address the issue.

A Facebook spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that while survey respondents were not asked to name specific accounts, researchers found the celebrity accounts were "some of the most frequently seen accounts for people who told us they experienced either higher or lower levels of negative social comparison on Instagram," based on the company's internal data.

The spokesperson noted the findings made sense because the celebrities listed have more than 30 million followers each.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×