Testing the effectiveness of online anti-objectification intervention (WP of EPSRC Include + grant ref # 482763)

This part of the project is led by Dr Magdalena Zawisza and funded by EPSRC Include Plus grant ref # 482763. It aims to test an online anti-objectification intervention being developed with young women who are users of social media. Ofcom’s Online Nation 2023 report finds that 56% of online harm is experienced on social media platforms and that ‘content or language which objectifies, demeans, or otherwise negatively portrays women’ is one of the top ten harms experienced by women and girls. Such exposure can produce negative effects including, anxiety, shame, depression and eating disorders, which impair performance, lower aspirations (Zawisza-Riley, 2019; Sharma & Vidal, 2023), and create inequitable online spaces. Although online harm exposure decreases as users age, the experiences of negative content remain high among marginalised groups, particularly those defined by gender, race, sexuality, disability, or socioeconomic status. This part of the project will test the intervention’s effectiveness in promoting more resilient responses to harmful online content and in supporting wellbeing using pre and pots-intervention questionnaires.