About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about whether role models and celebrity exposure can be attributed as a cause of anorexia nervosa, focusing in particular on: (i) the link found by Brown and Tiggemann between viewing celebrity social media and body dissatisfaction; (ii) their explanations for this, comprising of social comparison theory and objectification theory; (iii) some key limitations of this meta-analysis, including the focus on adolescent females, the results in older adults being that this effect was not present, and the lack of consideration of eating disorders; (iv) the fact that not everyone who views celebrities develops an eating disorder, which has been explained by differences in internalisation of views of celebrities; (v) the potentially harmful stigma attached to linking the viewing of celebrities with the development of eating disorders, especially due to the complexity of eating disorders.

About the lecturer

Dr Laura Renshaw Vuillier is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Bournemouth University. Dr Renshaw-Vuillier’s research interests surround the neural basis of emotion processing and regulation in eating disorders, as well as developing early interventions to help young people with gambling problems. Some of Dr Renshaw-Vuillier’s recent publications include 'The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with eating disorders: the role of emotion regulation and exploration of online treatment experiences' (2021) and 'Believing emotions are uncontrollable is linked to eating disorder psychopathology via suppression and reappraisal' (2021).