How influencers do encourage young women to get Botox

SOCIAL media influencers are encouraging young women to undergo potentially dangerous cosmetic procedures without highlighting the pitfalls, research suggests.

A University of Edinburgh Business School team interviewed female Instagram users aged 18 to 30 who had undergone or hoped to undergo treatments such as Botox injections and lip or face fillers.

All those questioned said they looked to Instagram influencers for information about such procedures.

Social media body transformation stories were ‘instrumental’ in women looking for information and recommendations about cosmetic procedures, the researchers said.

Those questioned said that they could relate more to influencers than celebrities as followers could see the result of procedures on real people.

But Victoria Rodner, of the university business school, said there was a tendency for cosmetic procedures to be portrayed on social media as ‘effortless and normal’, just like other beauty treatments such as manicures or hair extensions.

She said of the study: ‘This, along with data on the impact of face filters and digitally enhancing apps, helps us understand the effect of image-based platforms such as Instagram on consumers’ decision-making and, more alarmingly, on our body image.’