Instagram Versus Reality: The Effect of Social Media Beauty Filters on Consumer Perceptions

Social Media Influencers (SMIs), who earn their living by sharing their product reviews, have become quite popular in social media advertising. They frequently use beauty filters to beautify their faces in their advertised posts. Application of beauty filters allows SMIs to transform their faces digitally and have visually appealing facial features. While this frequent use of beauty filters could cause negative societal effects in terms of altering beauty standards to be unrealistic, it is yet to be known how such use of beauty filters impacts consumer perceptions of the SMI or their advertised product. This thesis explores these impacts across three studies. The findings reveal that not using beauty filters is the best strategy to ensure positive reactions from consumers regarding SMIs' advertisements. The current work contributes to the literature by extending the knowledge of beauty filters and contributes to the laws that are in place about filter use.