Your Old Photos May Be Fueling Body Shame, New Research Suggests

An old photograph can make you miss a version of yourself you never realized you were comparing yourself to.

You find a picture from your 20s and notice the smaller waist. Or you see a vacation photo from before children, menopause, illness, or a major weight change. The photograph may have been sitting on your phone for years, but suddenly it becomes a reference point: I looked better then.

New research from Ohio State University suggests this kind of comparison may be measurably linked to body image.

Researchers developed and tested an 11-item scale specifically designed to measure what they call self-oriented appearance comparison, or the tendency to judge your current appearance against a former version of yourself.

And the direction of that comparison appears to matter.

When Your Former Body Becomes the Ideal

The Ohio State team studied 973 U.S. adults ages 18 to 70, then tested its findings in a second sample of 885 adults. Another 304 participants completed the scale again three weeks later.

The researchers called the behavior self-oriented appearance comparison.

There are two forms.

Upward comparison means looking at your former appearance and deciding that you looked better then.

Downward comparison means viewing your former appearance as less attractive than you are now.

The difference was significant.

People who reported more upward comparison also reported more body shame, rumination, negative body image, and disordered-eating symptoms. Upward comparison also predicted unique differences in body shame and disordered eating beyond comparisons with other people and brooding.

The study does not show that looking at an old photograph causes an eating disorder. It identifies an association between a recurring comparison pattern and these outcomes.

Looking Back Can Also Feel Good

The researchers found something unexpected.

Downward self-oriented comparison was associated with less body shame, greater body appreciation, and more appearance pride.

Tracy Tylka, PhD, the study’s lead author and an Ohio State clinical psychology professor, said:

“What surprised us was that downward comparison was viewed more favorably. We were expecting a pattern more similar to social comparison, where downward comparison is also maladaptive.”

That makes the findings more complicated than simply warning people against looking at old photos.

The direction of the comparison appears to matter. Seeing a former version of yourself as “better” was associated with negative outcomes, while seeing your former appearance as less desirable was associated with more positive body-image measures.

The Comparison Can Happen at Major Turning Points

Photo Credit: Stockbusters/Deposit Photos

The researchers point to puberty, pregnancy, menopause, andropause, illness, aging, and weight changes as periods when people may become particularly aware of differences between their current and former appearance.

Tylka said this is an overlooked part of body-image research:

“The body image field has been late to notice ageism and the lack of research on the aging process as it relates to body image. As we age, we move further away from what society tells us we should look like, and we compare ourselves to previous versions, photos or videos from decades ago.”

That can make an old photograph more than a memory. It can become a standard.

Related: 10 Hidden Insecurities That Drive Older Partners to Control a Younger Mate’s Appearance

Your Camera Roll Is Another Comparison Source

Much of the research on appearance comparison has focused on other people, particularly through social media.

A 2024 meta-analysis of 83 studies involving 55,440 participants found that greater social-media comparison was moderately associated with more body-image concerns, eating-disorder symptoms, and lower positive body image.

The Ohio State study adds another target that is considerably harder to escape: your own history.

Nichole Wood-Barcalow, a co-author and clinician, said she had seen clients make these comparisons when looking at older photographs, videos, and memories.

One reaction she recalled was:

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how much I’ve changed.”

That reaction alone doesn’t show a problem. The researchers are interested in what happens when noticing that change turns into judging the present body against the former one.

This Idea Didn’t Start With the New Study

A 2021 study of middle-aged women had already found that comparing themselves with their younger selves was associated with unique differences in body-image concerns, even after researchers considered comparisons with peers, models, and celebrities.

But the earlier research used a single question to measure younger-self comparison.

The Ohio State team expanded the concept into an 11-item scale and separated upward and downward comparisons.

That gives researchers a more detailed way to study a familiar experience: looking at who you were and deciding that your body was better, worse, or simply different.

The Researchers Aren’t Saying to Delete Your Photos

The researchers did not ask participants to scroll through old photographs and measure how their body image changed afterward.

The study relied on self-reported questionnaires and cannot establish cause and effect.

Participants were also mostly White, well-educated U.S. adults, so the findings may not apply equally across all populations.

And while the researchers identified life changes such as pregnancy, menopause, illness, and aging as contexts in which past-self comparison may become relevant, those specific situations were not tested as separate experiments.

So the takeaway isn’t that your camera roll is bad for you.

It is that the person you compare yourself with when judging your appearance may sometimes be a former version of you.

Tylka believes that distinction could also matter in clinical care:

“In clinical treatment, we shouldn’t just focus on how clients are comparing themselves to others, but also how they are comparing themselves to previous versions of themselves.”

The Next Question May Be About How We Read Our Own History

The researchers are already interested in where this concept could go next.

Tylka has said the SOCS-A could have relevance to research involving GLP-1 medications, body image and eating behavior. She emphasized that this is future research and that her team’s data on that question have not yet been analyzed.

For now, the Ohio State study challenges a familiar assumption about body comparison.

The person you’re measuring yourself against does not have to be younger than you, thinner than you, or famous.

They may simply be you.

And sometimes the most difficult comparison isn’t with the person in the mirror.

It’s with the person in the photograph.

Have you ever looked at an old photo of yourself and felt worse about how you look today?