The Authenticity Buffer Experiment: Can “Realness-Weighted” Feeds Reduce Harmful Social Comparison?

A preregistered randomized trial in a simulated platform: adolescents are assigned to (a) authenticity-boosted rankers (up-weight content with low filter scores, context captions, candid peer posts; add authenticity labels) vs (b) status quo rankers. Outcomes include state self-esteem, frequency/intensity of comparison episodes, perceived authenticity, and affect reactivity to feedback. This is the first study to treat authenticity as an algorithmic parameter rather than just a psychological perception, directly testing authenticity-weighted ranking as a protective design. The study stratifies by culture (e.g., U.S. vs Korea) to examine differential effects across normative beauty ecologies and tests if authenticity weighting increases the surfacing of supportive peer interactions and perceived support loops. If authenticity weighting reduces upward comparisons without suppressing engagement, it offers a practical, scalable mitigation that platforms could deploy. The impact is a generalizable design rule—“rank real, label ideal”—with evidence on who benefits most (e.g., high social comparison orientation; lower baseline self-esteem) and when.

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