Research on the Influencing Factors of Idealized Makeup Looks in Beauty Short Videos on Viewers' Anxiety

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jnme.202510605

Author(s)

Qingxi Bing

Affiliation(s)

Ready Global Academy, 1170 Old Henderson Rd, Columbus, Ohio, 43220, USA

Abstract

This study attempts to explore the impact of idealized makeup looks in beauty short videos on the anxiety of audiences and alleviation strategies. The audience set of beauty short videos today covers a vast scope, and the contents put forward mainly through filters, beauty mode, and others involve idealized looks and plots, which would easily trigger anxiety among audiences. The research borrows from the theory of social comparison, combining literature review and questionnaire research approach. The research finds the subgroup aged between 18-25, who makeup every day and watch beauty videos every day, demonstrates the highest prevalence of anxiety; core trigger factors include the mismatch between technological and root gaps, and the disproportion between idealized and true product promotion. Four influential dimensions are extracted as significant: media technology developing "ideal models," diffusion of contents facilitating a special esthetics and anxiety-driven marketing, social comparison imposing upward pressures, and media model cognitively depended by humans. More than half the respondents confess the gap between content and reality but nevertheless continue adhering to the customs, for which self-regulation is the top anxiety alleviation strategy. This research covers the void of media anxiety theory and proposes alleviation measures involving the cooperation of producers, platforms, audiences, and social institutions, but for the sampling, there is a lack of regional and professional allocation.

Keywords

Beauty Short Videos; Idealized Makeup Looks; Physical Appearance Anxiety; Social Comparison Theory; Questionnaire Survey Method

References

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