BeReal and Body Image Self-Discrepancy

ISEF Category: Behavioral and Social Sciences

Subcategory: Social Psychology  ·  Difficulty: Intermediate  ·  Setup: Home Setup  ·  Time: 1 to 2 Months

The Hook

A photo can change how you feel about your own body in minutes. BeReal pushes you to post fast, unfiltered snapshots, while curated apps reward polished images. That makes a sharp question for research, does the kind of photo you post shift your body-image self-discrepancy, the gap between how you see yourself and how you want to look?

What Is It?

Body-image self-discrepancy is the difference between your actual body image and your ideal body image. Think of it like two versions of the same picture, one showing what you think you look like now, and one showing what you wish you looked like. The bigger the gap, the larger the discrepancy.

A diary study lets you track that gap over time instead of taking one snapshot and hoping it tells the whole story. In this project, you compare how you feel after posting an unfiltered photo with how you feel after posting a curated one. That gives you a clean way to test whether the posting style itself changes the way you judge your appearance.

Why This Is a Good Topic

This is a strong science fair topic because you can measure it with surveys, compare each person to their own baseline, and test a clear cause-and-effect question. It connects to real problems teens face every day, like social comparison, photo editing, and pressure to look perfect online. You can also learn a real research skill, how to design a within-subject study, collect diary data, and analyze score changes over time.

Research Questions

• How does posting an unfiltered BeReal-style photo affect body-image self-discrepancy scores compared with posting a curated photo?
• What is the effect of photo editing before posting on next-day body-image self-discrepancy scores?
• Does the order of curated and unfiltered posting days change the size of the self-discrepancy shift?
• To what extent does prior mood predict the change in body-image self-discrepancy after posting?
• Which platform condition leads to larger within-person score changes, BeReal-style posting or curated-platform posting?
• How does time since the last social media check relate to body-image self-discrepancy after posting?

Basic Materials

• Smartphone with camera and notifications enabled.
• Daily survey tool such as Google Forms or a paper diary sheet.
• Spreadsheet software such as Google Sheets or Excel.
• Written consent form and assent form if you recruit minors.
• Simple rating scale for body-image self-discrepancy items.
• Notebook for tracking posting dates, mood, and missing entries.
• Secure folder or drive for storing de-identified responses.

Advanced Materials

• Qualtrics or REDCap for structured diary collection.
• R or JASP for repeated-measures analysis.
• Secure research laptop for de-identified data handling.
• Institutional review board consent documents, if your school has one.
• Standardized image display setup for showing post examples under the same conditions.
• Statistical power tool for planning sample size.
• Encrypted storage on a school or university server.

Software & Tools

• Google Forms: Collects daily ratings and keeps responses in one place.
• Google Sheets: Organizes diary data and tracks missing entries.
• R: Runs within-person models and makes plots of score change over time.
• JASP: Offers free repeated-measures tests with a simple interface.
• jamovi: Lets you compare conditions without paid software.

Experiment Steps

1. Define the two posting conditions you will compare and the exact body-image measure you will use.
2. Set up a diary schedule that records ratings before and after each post.
3. Choose control variables, such as mood, sleep, and recent social media use, so you can separate the posting effect from background noise.
4. Plan how you will randomize or counterbalance the order of curated and unfiltered days.
5. Decide how you will score within-person change, handle missing days, and flag outliers before you collect data.

Common Pitfalls

• Mixing up body-image self-discrepancy with general mood, which makes your score changes hard to interpret.
• Putting curated days before unfiltered days every time, which confounds the platform effect with practice or fatigue.
• Asking for ratings only once a day, which can miss the short-term shift right after posting.
• Comparing different people instead of each person to their own baseline, which hides the within-subject effect.
• Using vague survey items, which creates noisy data that do not capture the gap between actual and ideal self.

What Makes This Competitive

A stronger version of this project uses counterbalancing, tight controls, and a clear within-person analysis instead of a simple before-and-after comparison. You can raise the level by testing a moderator, like prior social media use or selfie type, and by using mixed-effects models to handle repeated diary entries. A sharp writeup also explains why your measure fits the psychology of self-discrepancy, not just general satisfaction.

Project Variations

• Compare BeReal-style posting with Instagram Stories instead of a generic curated feed.
• Test whether selfies and full-body photos produce different self-discrepancy shifts.
• Add a next-day follow-up to see whether the posting effect fades quickly or lasts longer.

Learn More

• PubMed: Search review articles on social media use, body image, and self-discrepancy.
• NIH RePORTER: Find funded projects on adolescent social media and mental health.
• APA Dictionary of Psychology: Look up plain-language definitions for self-discrepancy, body image, and related terms.
• MIT OpenCourseWare: Search introductory psychology research methods material for diary studies and repeated-measures design.
• Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology: Read peer-reviewed studies on social comparison, body image, and well-being through your school library or author copies.