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. 2025 Jun;22(3):243-252.
doi: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20250307.

"Too Good to be True": An Explorative Study of Photo Manipulation, Body Image Dissatisfaction and Critical Thinking

Amelia Rizzo  1   2 , Martina Barbera  3   2 , Fuat Aydoğdu  4 , Müge Akbağ  5
Affiliations

"Too Good to be True": An Explorative Study of Photo Manipulation, Body Image Dissatisfaction and Critical Thinking

Amelia Rizzo et al. Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: Several studies have demonstrated an increase in body dissatisfaction following the use of photo filters; however, the role of intervening factors such as critical thinking has often been overlooked. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationships between photographic manipulation, body dissatisfaction, and critical thinking, taking into account the mediating role of critical thinking.

Method: A convenience sample of 500 Italian-speaking subjects (44% male; 56% female) aged between 18 and 60 years (Mage = 25.7; SD = 17.8) participated at the study. The instruments used were: (1) the Revised Photo Manipulation Scale; (2) the Body Uneasiness Test; (3) the Fake Subscale of the Critical Processing of Beauty Images Scale; (4) a specifically constructed task for recognizing photographic manipulation (5) three control questions.

Results: The results obtained show a positive relationship between the use of photo manipulation and body image dissatisfaction. Critical thinking has a partial mediating role in the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and photo manipulation.

Conclusions: To delve deeper into the findings, the participants' ability to correctly classify natural and filtered photos have been described. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Keywords: critical thinking; digital body image; photo manipulation; selfie.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Images selected for the recognition task (in order of administration)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mediation model
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Response to Manipulated photo recognition task
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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