Adults Increasingly Concerned About Their Appearance, Says Bumble Survey

A new study from Bumble has found that adults are growing increasingly concerned with their appearance, with the pandemic being cited as the biggest contributing factor.

Over half of the adults surveyed, of all genders, are reportedly more worried about how they look, compared to at the beginning of 2020. This could be caused by more time spent on video calls and less time spent doing positive activities, like exercising and socialising.

58% of respondents are still trying to get ‘beach body ready’, despite summer holidays looking increasingly unlikely for many people.

The survey also found that singles are not afraid to cancel dates at the last minute if they are feeling insecure about their looks or body.

Sex and relationships specialist Dr Caroline West explained to Metro: “The pandemic has been a difficult time for us all, [with] more time to reflect on ourselves and be self-critical. This may have contributed to increased feelings of anxiety when it comes to meeting new people and can leave some lacking confidence.

“Due to a variety of factors including body shaming language used in society, perpetuated images of “the perfect body” as well as outdated societal pressures, body confidence issues can niggle their way into even the most confident women who feel that they don’t fit into these cultural and societal beauty standards.”

Bumble announced at the beginning of the year that it would begin banning members who used body-shaming language in their profiles or during private conversations.

Artificial intelligence flags potentially offensive language which is then reviewed by a human moderator. A similar system was also put in place to crackdown on incidents of racism, sexism and homophobia.

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