Authors: Stempfer, N. & Wolf, M.
Centre: University Hospital Heidelberg

Personal weblogs are a popular form of modern Internet communication among young women and adolescents in Germany and other countries of the world. Certain kinds of websites, however, namely websites which are promoting the ideas of the so called Pro-Ana or Pro-Mia movement have recently been banned by law in some European countries (France, Spain), because they were assumed to have a strong detrimental impact on healthy visitors and young individuals being at risk for developing an ED. It is hypothesized, that these websites foster the internalization of the thin ideal, normalize unhealthy life styles and therefore promote dangerous attitudes and behaviors among young individuals which are considered risk factors for the development of an ED. Despite a growing discussion about the detrimental effects of these websites, however few studies investigated their impact on consumers so far.

The proposed study uses an experimental approach to examine the impact of Pro-ED website contents on affect, body dissatisfaction and body self-esteem in healthy young women. In the study, N = 400 young females will be randomly exposed to a Pro-ED weblog, a Pro-recovery weblog or a non-ED control weblog. After being exposed the participants will answer questionnaires and write a short essay evaluating the "person behind the blog".

This study aims at replicating the results of another recent experiment which was conducted in the US. The present study also extends the conceptual framework of this study in two ways. First, in contrast to the literature we propose no general negative effect of being exposed to Pro-ED contents, but a differential effect depending on the preexisting condition of the consumer, that is whether she already is "at risk" or not. Secondly, we examine the mechanisms of the website exposure by introducing cognitive and social processes as an explanation of the impact on certain individuals. In this regard, it is aimed to open up a new perspective on how ED ideas spread out among weblog readers according to social contagion theory.