Social media's food content is rarely neutral — and a growing body of evidence suggests that certain formats may quietly erode how viewers relate to their own bodies and appetites. This cross-sectional study adds important cross-cultural texture to that concern, examining whether eating-focused video genres, beyond the well-studied mukbang format, carry measurable risks for body image and eating behaviour.
Among 446 adults aged 18–35 (82.3% women; 257 Australian, 189 Chinese), researchers found that viewing mukbang and eating challenge videos was positively associated with thin-ideal internalisation, food craving, and bulimic symptomatology. Critically, these associations were not direct: appearance comparison and internalisation of appearance ideals functioned as significant mediating pathways, suggesting the mechanism is social and cognitive rather than purely appetitive. Chinese participants reported higher frequency of eating video consumption than their Australian counterparts, pointing to culturally embedded viewing norms that may modulate risk exposure differently across populations.
This study fits within a rapidly expanding literature on how algorithmically curated food content intersects with body image vulnerability. Prior work on mukbang has implicated parasocial reinforcement of binge-eating norms, but the extension to eating challenges is notable — these formats often celebrate consumption volume without the companionship framing of mukbang, potentially activating competitive or comparative cognitions instead. The mediation by appearance comparison is theoretically consistent with social comparison theory, and aligns with findings from fitspiration and thinspiration research, suggesting a shared psychological mechanism across seemingly opposite content types. Key limitations include the cross-sectional design — causality cannot be inferred — and the predominantly female, young-adult sample, which limits generalisability. The online questionnaire format also relies on self-report of often-stigmatised behaviours. This is confirmatory and incremental rather than paradigm-shifting, but the cross-cultural comparison and the expansion beyond mukbang to eating challenges meaningfully advance the field's precision.
