Chapter 3

Results and Discussion

This chapter shows the statistical treatments applied to the data and its results.

The appearance evaluation and appearance orientation subscales were the two key

factor subscales in the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations

Questionnaire—Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS) (Brown, Cash, & Mikulka, 1990;

Cash, 2000). Results were tabulated and interpreted under the assumption that all

respondents answered the questionnaire honestly.

Analysis and Interpretation

Figure 1. Range of Correlation and Interpretation

As shown in Figure 1, Q.3 is the question with the highest weighted mean of 3.93

and states that “I check my appearance in a mirror whenever I can”. It is interpreted as

Agree. On the other hand, Q.11 is the one with the lowest weighted mean of 2.38 with

the interpretation of Disagree to the statement “I never think about my appearance”.

From the results of the two contrasting statements, it can be analyzed that the

respondents care on how they look on the outside or how they present themselves. This

analysis can also be supported by the total weighted mean of Appearance Orientation

subscale which is 3.51 as Agree. The data suggests that the respondents do, in fact,

put effort into looking good. Which correlates to the fact that they are TikTok users and

according to a study of Carrotte and colleagues (2015), people often use social media

as a source for information specifically relating to body image. It can be inferred that

with the data result, it establishes a relationship between TikTok usage and appearance

orientation.

Correlation Analysis

Appearance evaluation gauges one's perception of one's physical attractiveness

or lack thereof. On the other hand, appearance orientation measures how much one

cares about the way they look. Spearman's rho was used to examine the acquired data.

The correlation coefficients and p values for the subscales measuring appearance

evaluation and appearance orientation are displayed in the table below.

Figure 2. Correlation between TikTok and Body Satisfaction

Figure 2 illustrates that there is no relationship between the Appearance Evaluation

subscale and TikTok usage, with a p value of 0.712. This implies that TikTok has no

impact on how its users perceive their physical attractiveness. However, it was shown
that the Appearance Orientation subscale had a p value of 0.045, indicating that

Appearance Orientation is substantially connected with TikTok usage. This suggests

that TikTok has an impact on how much its users invest in their appearance. Also,

TikTok usage influences its users in a way that makes them value their looks more, pay

attention to it, and practice comprehensive grooming habits.

The findings suggest that TikTok users make a greater effort to improve their

appearance through rigorous grooming practices because they are aware of the need to

alter their appearance to match the appearances they see on TikTok. This is

corroborated by a study done in 2022 by Pan and colleagues, which discovered a link

between TikTok users' desire to change their appearance and how frequently they

watch TikTok influencers. Influencers are thought of as content producers that have

developed a sizable following of captivated fans and hold a position of competence in a

particular field (Lou and Yuan, 2019). Previous research also highlighted the fact that

rather than promoting acceptance and respect for realistic body image, social media

influencers, like those on TikTok, instead cater to preexisting beauty stereotypes. The

impulse to alter one's look occurs among TikTok audiences as a result of the enormous

number of influencers and TikTok contents that appeal to these preexisting beauty

stereotypes. The need to reduce appearance anxiety may be the driving force behind

TikTok content makers' increased investment in appearance enhancement. The concept

of appearance anxiety, a subtype of social anxiety, is tension and anguish brought on by

the sense of unfavorable social judgments of one's physical appearance. According to a

recent study by Zhu (2023), media has a greater detrimental impact on people's anxiety

over their appearance, and TikTok users—viewers and content creators alike—who
wished to reduce their anxiety about their appearance progressively lost their sense of

self due to other people's comments. Some of these TikTok users may have

purposefully changed their appearance to imitate the appearances of other online users

who were preferred as they grew less and less content with their original appearances

and sought praise to bolster their confidence and satisfaction.

The current study's findings on investment in one's appearance are consistent with

those of a study done by Hermans and colleagues in 2022 regarding the effects of

social media, including TikTok, on such behaviors. The results are consistent with the

idea that highly visual social media, such as TikTok, encourage appearance-focused

material, which has been linked to higher appearance orientation and investment.

Therefore, since TikTok usage influences the appearance orientation or the extent of

investment in one’s appearance among its users, it can be concluded that as the users

recognize that someone is "better" looking than them on TikTok, they see the need to

improve themselves. This need may come from the possibility of discontentment or

dissatisfaction that they feel with how they look compared to what they see on TikTok.

Comparative Analysis on Gender

Figure 3. Comparative Analysis on Gender

When it comes to gender, data results show that there is relevance in men’s

Appearance Evaluation (p value = 0.021) subscale with the mean of 3.14. This suggests

that male respondents are generally satisfied with their appearance than female
respondents. Men appear to have more body appreciation and less value on how they

look (Lobera & Ríos, 2013). This can be substantiated in another study where when it

comes to social comparison such as in TikTok application, men are more likely to do it

because of their high body image (Rahmadiansyah, 2021). Implying that men are less

likely to have body image related issues.

Moreover, a study by Tiggemann (2004) found that women were to experience

unhappiness with their body because of the changes that happen as they age or

mature. Making women possibly vulnerable to having skewed perceptions on healthy

body image and/or satisfaction.

Comparative Analysis on the Types of TikTok User

Figure 4. Comparative on Types of TikTok User

It was shown in Figure 4 that the Appearance Evaluation has a p value of 0.20,

noting that it is lower than 0.05, with an average value of the responses from the Viewer

of 3.01 whereas the Viewer and Content Creator’s with 3.15. Data results imply that

most of the viewers find their appearance less appealing compared to the viewers and

content creators who are more likely to be more satisfied with their bodies. On the other

hand, Appearance Orientation has a p value of 0.881, which is greater than the

significance level. It has a mean of 3.5 as per the viewers which is lesser than the

viewer and content creator’s mean of about 0.1. This result indicates that it has no

significant difference with the individual’s body satisfaction.

 Hence, the results showed that those who both view and create content at the

same time find themselves attractive and are more likely to be satisfied with their looks.

Compared to those who only view TikTok, content creators want to present an appealing

and attractive version of themselves. This is supported by the study of Yuliana (2022),

which states that TikTok users’ self-confidence is influenced by the intensity with which

they use the TikTok application; in other words, TikTok users, especially content creators

in the application, are able to express themselves through the production of video

content and utilize the numerous TikTok features. An increase in confidence as a result

of this will give them the guts to try new things or take on challenging situations. Since

results showed that viewers who are also content creators are more likely to be satisfied

with their appearance and are more likely to see themselves as attractive, this may

imply that they felt confident enough with how they looked to post video content on their

TikTok accounts. This could also be because they received positive feedback from

comments and found it encouraging to post videos.

 Chapter 4

Conclusion and Recommendations

This chapter presents the derived conclusions and the recommendation as an

outgrowth of this research.

Conclusion

TikTok is the most used application to date and is a highly visual social media

platform. Its influence is not yet thoroughly studied and with the gathered result it

showed that TikTok usage is not significantly correlated with body satisfaction. It does,

however, reveal that TikTok usage bears an impact towards the appearance orientation

of its users. Implying that TikTok users place high value on their looks. TikTok can make

people want to change their appearance, particularly in improving it. In addition, this

study's findings also found that men are more likely to be satisfied with their bodies and

are more likely to find themselves attractive than their female counterparts. Moreover,

viewers who are also content creators are more likely to find themselves attractive and

satisfied with their bodies. Viewers only, on the other hand, are more susceptible to an

upward comparison.

Recommendation

The current study certainly shed light on one of TikTok's potential impacts on its users,

namely the correlation with appearance orientation. However, since this is only a

survey-based data collection, the results are purely quantitative. It is recommended for

future research to do an experimental approach to further verify the conclusion reached.

In addition, there are other ways that this research can be improved, including by
looking at a different community or increasing the sample size of respondents to get

more comprehensive data.

TikTok is a growing social media with a high number of users. With the current data, this

study was already able to show one possible influence that can put its viewers at risk on

body-image related issues. As a result, this study wants to emphasize how crucial it is

to carry on the topic of research in order to educate social media natives and safeguard

them against potential mental health-related problems.

References:

Yuliana, D. (2022). The intensity of use of social networking applications on

self-confidence. Bisma The Journal of Counseling, 6(1), 115-120. doi:

10.23887/bisma.v6i1.48970