Social Media

The popular "#fitspiration" hashtag on Instagram is purportedly intended to motivate individuals toward a healthier lifestyle. But new research suggests that such images have a dark side. The study, published in Psychology of Popular Media, provides evidence that viewing fitspiration...

A new study published in Frontiers in Communication suggests that the more American citizens trust their daily social media outlet, the more they believe that Chinese Americans are a threat to the United States. As the world battles with the...

A social network analysis published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research examined tweets discussing the COVID-19 and 5G conspiracy theory. The analysis found that while 35% of tweets about the conspiracy expressed support for the theory, 32% denounced the...

New research provides evidence that personal factors and group behavior are both related to sending hateful messages on social media. The findings have been published in PLOS One. "I believe that the online hate and aggression are among the most...

New research published in Addictive Behaviors Reports explores the link between body-objectification and selfie-posting behavior. The study found that body surveillance and positive expectations toward selfies predicted selfie-engagement among both men and women. As study authors Valentina Boursier and her...

A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour analyzed web-traffic data collected during the 2016 US presidential campaign. The study found that Trump supporters were most likely to consume news from untrustworthy sources but that, in general, untrustworthy news took...

Viewing images of facial cosmetic enhancements increases the desire for cosmetic surgery among young women, especially for those who spend more time on social media, according to new research published in Current Psychology. The study provides new insight into how...

New research suggests that Instagram is saturated with images depicting very lean and very muscular men. The study, which appears in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, found that posts depicting this type of body tend to receive more...

People who are obsessed with celebrities are more likely to engage in addictive use of social media, according to new research from Eötvös Loránd University and Pázmány Péter Catholic University. The findings have been published in the journal Psychology of...

After the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese population showed an increase in anxiety and depression and a decrease in happiness and life satisfaction. This finding comes from a report that analyzed user messages from China’s social media platform, Weibo. The...

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to widespread quarantine and shutdown of all services deemed non-essential. While countries are starting to make headway in the battle against the disease, it’s predicted that quarantine measures will remain...

The majority of YouTube’s most popular videos on the subject of COVID-19 fail to address key prevention behaviors for mitigating the spread of the virus. Instead, 84% of the videos mention death, and 79% suggest fear and anxiety. These findings...