**6.5 Sociocultural explanations**

Sociocultural models focus on the impact of culture and environment on body image and emphasize the importance of body image problems in the development of AN. Cultural expectations of thinness, usually termed "thin idealization," come from the media, family, friends, and peers [72]. Thinness is generalized within the scope of many positive meanings such as beauty, desirability, success, will, appreciation, charm, and control. Notably, exposure to images represented in the media that are often biologically unreachable for many women or even unreal (e.g., photoshopped) suggests thinness as a route to happiness, love, and success. Sociocultural models emphasize that the ideals of thinness are internalized through messages given by society, the media, peers, and family, resulting in eating and body problems and psychological symptoms in people who are dissatisfied with their body [73]. Lately, social media applications like Instagram and Tumblr and their impact on eating and body problems have become the focus of research in this area. Internalization of this thin ideal and an increase in body dissatisfaction are correlated with the prevalent pictures and the following of the accounts of thin people, celebrities, models, and actors [74]. Consequently, sociocultural factors play an important role in the thin idealization, but it is assumed that anorexia nervosa is developed through many factors including biological, cognitive, emotional, and social ones.
