Bothered More by Acquaintances’ Appearance than Celebrities’ on Social Networks: An Investigation of Comparison Targets’ Effect under Social Comparison Theory with a Chinese Student Sample

In times of the rise of the “A4 waist” trend on social networks (SNs), concerns have been raised over appearance-related content’s adverse effects on body image and well-being in parasocial relationships. We conducted a survey on Chinese college students ( N = 333) to examine the effects of comparison targets (same-gender acquaintances, celebrities, and online strangers) based on social comparison theory. The results indicate that, in line with construal-level theory, students paid more attention to the appearance-related content of same-gender acquaintances than that of the other two target groups. Surprisingly, small gaps in physical attraction between the students and acquaintances generated more appearance concern than the huge gaps between the students and celebrities, which could be explained by the “narcissism of small differences” theory. We developed existing comparison target studies by including the impact of online strangers to adapt to the current SN environment. Although the students paid the least attention to strangers’ SN appearance-related content, exposure to such content had a positive correlation with appearance concern. Regarding gender differences, females devoted more to SN appearance-related content than males across all three target groups, but the concern generated from viewing such content differed only when the targets were celebrities (females > males). The present study expands social comparison theory by introducing a two-dimensional (similarity and interaction forms) concept of “social distance.” Our findings suggest that socially close targets received more attention and comparisons and generated more concern about appearance. Plain language summary Acquaintances, celebrities, or online strangers, whose appearances in SNs make Chinese college students feel more concerned and why? A survey investigating comparison targets’ effect on concern about appearance under social comparison theory with a Chinese college student sample We carried out a survey among Chinese college students to look into their concern about appearance when exposed to appearance-related posts on social networks. Three groups were compared: same-gender acquaintances, same-gender celebrities, and same-gender online strangers. The students tended to focus more on acquaintances’ appearances and felt more concerned when viewing acquaintances’ appearance-related posts compared to celebrities and online strangers. We added online strangers as a comparison targe