• The Dark Side of Social Media - Unpacking Its Psychological Impact 

    Social media has revolutionized the way we connect, communicate, and consume information. However, its darker aspects pose significant challenges to individuals and societies. This Special Issue (SI) seeks to explore the negative psychological consequences of social media, such as their impact on interpersonal communication, the formation of political beliefs, mental health and body image, consumer behavior, and information processing. We invite research that examines these issues from psychological, media, and communication science perspectives and sheds light on the cognitive, emotional

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  • Who gives a Tweet? Fandom, social identity, and why people take to Twitter

    When we think of the world in terms of categories and different groups of people, we think of the various groups to which we belong and our identities within such groups. The groups to which we belong impact how we perceive ourselves, how others perceive us, and the extent to which we express our social identities in order to bolster our self-esteem. This blog will examine how and why people are motivated to express their social identities using social media and, more specifically, will propose that Twitter serves an important identity function for group members. ...more

  • Would One Direction be as popular if we got to re-run the world?

    In this post I ask why do songs, movies and books become popular? If you love something, it is easy to think it must be its obvious qualities, but if you work in promotion, you know that these qualities are not easy to spot. Usually, we look to our peers to discover new things – what Psychologists call social proof. The work I present shows how important social proof is in determining what becomes popular, but also that appeal, to some degree, matters.

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  • Is banning bossy enough to enact real social change? Celebrity activism and the “Ban Bossy” campaign

    Recently celebrity activists such as Beyoncé, Jenifer Garner, and Sheryl Sandberg have thrown their weight behind a campaign to ban the term “bossy” to describe women (banbossy.com, #banbossy). The goal of the campaign is to encourage young women to step into leadership roles and to assert themselves in the classroom and in life. In this blog I highlight the social value of celebrity activism and I highlight important caveats of celebrity activism based on science. ...more