Psychology of Popular Media

Article	Citations
Every (Insta)Gram counts? Applying cultivation theory to explore the effects of Instagram on young users’ body image.	43
Are there two types of escapism? Exploring a dualistic model of escapism in digital gaming and online streaming.	33
Alone and online: Understanding the relationships between social media, solitude, and psychological adjustment.	31
Consuming memes during the COVID pandemic: Effects of memes and meme type on COVID-related stress and coping efficacy.	25
Escaping the pandemic present: The relationship between nostalgic media use, escapism, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.	24
Solving the puzzle of null violent media effects.	24
A closer look at appearance and social media: Measuring activity, self-presentation, and social comparison and their associations with emotional adjustment.	24
“My smartphone is an extension of myself”: A holistic qualitative exploration of the impact of using a smartphone.	21
The impact of fitspiration content on body satisfaction and negative mood: An experimental study.	21
Coping with COVID-19 stress: The role of media consumption in emotion- and problem-focused coping.	21
Disappearing in the age of hypervisibility: Definition, context, and perceived psychological consequences of social media ghosting.	17
Unsatisfied needs as a predictor of obsessive passion for videogame play.	16
Perceptions of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploration.	16
The psychology of likes: Relevance of feedback on Instagram and relationship to self-esteem and social status.	16
Social comparison and state–trait dynamics: Viewing image-conscious Instagram accounts affects college students’ mood and anxiety.	16
The relationship between social short-form videos and youth’s well-being: It depends on usage types and content categories.	15
Dark personality traits and anger in cyber aggression perpetration: Is moral disengagement to blame?	14
Reducing social media use improves appearance and weight esteem in youth with emotional distress.	13
Using narrative media to satisfy intrinsic needs: Connecting parasocial relationships, retrospective imaginative involvement, and self-determination theory.	13
Who are GamerGate? A descriptive study of individuals involved in the GamerGate controversy.	12
Fiction and morality: Investigating the associations between reading exposure, empathy, morality, and moral judgment.	12
Binge-watching in times of COVID-19: A longitudinal examination of changes in affect and TV series consumption patterns during lockdown.	12
Not all media multitasking is the same: The frequency of media multitasking depends on cognitive and affective characteristics of media combinations.	12
A new avenue to reach out for the stars: The association of celebrity worship with problematic and nonproblematic social media use.	12
“To be yourself or your selfies, that is the question”: The moderation role of gender, nationality, and privacy settings in the relationship between selfie-engagement and body shame.	11

Looking through a filtered lens: Negative social comparison on social media and suicidal ideation among young adults.	11
Selfie appearance investment and peer feedback concern: Multimethod investigation of adolescent selfie practices and adjustment.	10
Self-control and need satisfaction in primetime: Television, social media, and friends can enhance regulatory resources via perceived autonomy and competence.	10
“Get out of my selfie!” Narcissism, gender, and motives for self-photography among emerging adults.	10
Inspired to mask up: The effect of uplifting media messages on attitudes about wearing face masks among Democrats and Republicans.	9
The effects of daily Instagram use on state self-objectification, well-being, and mood for young women.	9
Who finds media violence funny? Testing the effects of media violence exposure and dark personality traits.	8
College students’ media habits, concern for themselves and others, and mental health in the era of COVID-19.	8
Fear of missing out and compulsive social media use as mediators between OCD symptoms and social media fatigue.	8
The role of need satisfaction in explaining intentions to purchase and play in Pokémon Go and the moderating role of prior experience.	8
Parenting and tweens’ media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.	7
“I need to just have a couple of White claws and play animal crossing tonight”: Parents coping with video games during the COVID-19 pandemic.	7
Mimetic representations of the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of objectification, anchoring, and identification processes in coronavirus memes.	7
Is it painful? Playing violent video games affects brain responses to painful pictures: An event-related potential study.	7
Adolescents’ perceptions of nicotine vaping-related social media content.	7
Queer folklore: Examining the influence of fandom on sexual identity development and fluidity acceptance among Taylor Swift fans.	7
The effects of interaction fidelity on game experience in virtual reality.	7
“Ur a freakin goddess!”: Examining appearance commentary on Instagram.	7
When comedy goes to extremes: The influence of ideology and social identity on source liking, credibility, and counterarguing.	6
Navigating a muscular and sexualized Instagram feed: An experimental study examining how Instagram affects both heterosexual and nonheterosexual men’s body image.	6
Twitch in the time of quarantine: The role of engagement in needs fulfillment.	6
Predicting internet addiction with the dark triad: Beyond the five-factor model.	6
Gotta catch ‘em all: Exploring the use of Pokémon Go to enhance cognition and affect.	6
Loving to hate the Kardashians: Examining the interaction of character liking and hate-watching on the social influence of a reality TV show.	6
The dark side of antiheroes: Antisocial tendencies and affinity for morally ambiguous characters.	5
Ontological insecurity, nostalgia, and social media: Viewing YouTube videos of old TV commercials reestablishes continuity of the self over time.	5
Conjuring up the departed in virtual reality: The good, the bad, and the potentially ugly.	5
Love, desire, and problematic behaviors: Exploring young adults’ smartphone use from a uses and gratifications perspective.	5
Further tests of the media violence–aggression link: Replication and extension of the 7 Nations Project with multiple Latinx samples.	5
What babies, infants, and toddlers hear on Fox/Disney BabyTV: An exploratory study.	5
Disparaged dads? A content analysis of depictions of fathers in U.S. sitcoms over time.	5
Development and validation of the Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale.	5
Social norms and social identity explain the selection and anticipated enjoyment of in-group versus out-group films.	5
Mirror, mirror on the wall: The effect of listening to body positive music on implicit and explicit body esteem.	5
Extensions of the proteus effect on intergroup aggression in the real world.	5
Women’s exposure to sexualized TV, self-objectification, and consideration of cosmetic surgery: The role of age.	5
Empathy, narcissism, alexithymia, and social media use.	5
The woman in the (rearview) mirror: Viewers’ attitudes toward objectified car selfies of Black and White women.	5
The role of envy in linking active and passive social media use to memory functioning.	5
What does the Cat in the Hat know about that? An analysis of the educational and unrealistic content of children’s narrative science media.	5
Personality perception in Game of Thrones: Character consensus and assumed similarity.	4
Female-oriented dating sims in China: Players’ parasocial relationships, gender attitudes, and romantic beliefs.	4
Examining the postpartum period through social media: A content and thematic analysis of #postpartum Instagram posts.	4
Predicting the use of YouTube and content exposure among 10–12-year-old children: Dispositional, developmental, and social factors.	4
Celebrity hate: Credibility and belief in a just world in prediction of celebrity hate.	4
Achieving the ideal-self while harming my relationship: Examining associations between self-discrepancy, instagram photo manipulation, and romantic relationship outcomes.	4
The costs of sexualization: Examining viewers’ perceptions of sexualized profile owners in online dating.	4
Celebrity worship in the United Arab Emirates: An examination of its association with problematic internet use, maladaptive daydreaming, and desire for fame.	4
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: Simultaneously examining the association between three social networking sites and relationship stress and satisfaction.	4
Digital media impacts multiple aspects of self-representation: An investigation of flow, agency, presence, character identification, and time perception.	4

Problematic video gaming is associated with poor sleep quality, diet quality, and personal hygiene.	4
Playing with privilege: Examining demographics in choosing player-characters in video games.	4
Pressure, preoccupation, and porn: The relationship between internet pornography, gendered attitudes, and sexual coercion in young adults.	4
The dark triad of personality and hero/villain status as predictors of parasocial relationships with comic book characters.	3
Unemployment rate predicts anger in popular music lyrics: Evidence from top 10 songs in the United States and Germany from 1980 to 2017.	3
Self-compassion and women's experience of social media content portraying body positivity and appearance ideals.	3
Prejudice norms in online gaming: Game context and gamer identification as predictors of the acceptability of prejudice.	3
Better than scrolling: Digital detox in the search for the ideal self.	3
#Instabod versus #BoPo: An experimental study of the effects of viewing idealized versus body-positive content on collegiate males’ and females’ body satisfaction.	3
Do social media experiments prove a link with mental health: A methodological and meta-analytic review.	3
Women in fiction: Bechdel-Wallace Test results for the highest-grossing movies of the last four decades.	3
Entertainment and social media use during social distancing: Examining trait differences in transportability and need for social assurance.	3
Whose bed have your boots been under? People's expected responses toward celebrities’ romantic relationship infidelity.	3
Identification with characters in parasocial relationships predicts sharing their personality traits.	3
Problematic smartphone use versus “technoference”: Examining their unique predictive power on relational and life satisfaction.	3
The associations between parents’ technoference, their problematic use of digital technology, and the psychological state of their children.	3
Interactive decision-making in entertainment movies: A mixed-methods approach.	3
If your girl only knew: The effects of infidelity-themed song lyrics on cognitions related to infidelity.	3
The Big Five and beyond: Which personality traits do predict movie and reading preferences?	3
Laughing about a health risk? Alcohol in comedy series and its connection to humor.	3
Unfulfilled romantic needs: Effects of relationship status, presence of romantic partners, and relationship satisfaction on romantic parasocial phenomena.	3
Is that a real woman? Reality TV viewing and black viewers’ beliefs about femininity.	3
Directional is the new null? A comment on Bushman and Anderson (2021).	3
Recognizing the similarities and appreciating the differences? Content choices and perceived (dis)similarity with TV show characters among youth.	3
Just my imagination: The influence of celebrities’ romantic relationship announcements on romance fans and friendship fans.	3
Excited for eudaimonia? An emergent thematic analysis of player expectations of upcoming video games.	2
Parasocial relationships as functional social alternatives during pandemic-induced social distancing.	2
Character immersion in video games as a form of acting.	2
The portrayal of mental illness in popular children's programs on Netflix: A content and thematic analysis.	2
Binging on the heartbreak: The effect of binge-watching on narrative engagement and parasocial breakups.	2
Rage in video gaming, characteristics of loss of control among gamers: A qualitative study.	2
Intergroup contact with a virtual refugee: Reducing prejudice through a cooperative game.	2
One of us or one of them? How “peripheral” adverts on social media affect the social categorization of sociopolitical message givers.	2
Select your character: Individual needs and avatar choice.	2
Postexposure engagement with more and less eudaimonic films: 10-year patterns of response and the role of parasocial relationship and retrospective imaginative involvement.	2
Content of social media fitspiration and its effect on physical activity-related behavior: A systematic review.	2
Does gender matter? Comic hosts, audience reception, and the processing of political satire content.	2
Why lurk, why join, and why post? The uses and gratifications of lurkers, infrequent posters, and frequent posters in the brand community context.	2
That bygone feeling: Controller ergonomics and nostalgia in video game play.	2
Social media usage is associated with lower knowledge about anxiety and indiscriminate use of anxiety coping strategies.	2
Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution: How engagement, enjoyment, and FoMO predict avoidance of spoilers.	2
Linking adolescents’ exposure to and identification with reality TV to materialism, narcissism, and entitlement.	2
The role of cliffhangers in serial entertainment: An experiment on cliffhangers’ effects on enjoyment, arousal, and intention to continue watching.	2
Random app of kindness: Evaluating the potential of a smartphone intervention to impact adolescents’ empathy, prosocial behavior, and aggression.	2
The prosocial and cathartic potential of immersive media on eudaimonic entertainment experiences.	2
The role of different screen media devices, child dysregulation, and parent screen media use in children’s self-regulation.	2
Do you “like” me? The roles of Facebook reassurance seeking and attachment style on depression.	2
Parent–child communication about gender and race through the films Black Panther and Wonder Woman: The roles of parental mediation and media literacy.	2
Media prescriptions for goal achievement: The differential effect of inspiring versus humorous content.	2
Should the cat in the hat keep talking like that? Educational correlates of anthropomorphism in children's science media.	2
Hetero-(sex)pectations: Exploring the link between compulsive pornography consumption, heterosexual script endorsement, and hookups among emerging adults.	2
Be complex, be very complex: Evaluating the integrative complexity of main characters in horror films.	2
Can the social network bridge social distancing? Social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.	2
How sex is referenced in Netflix original, adolescent-directed series: A content analysis of subtitles.	2
The role of different characters on story-consistent attitudes and self-reported mental health-related behavior change among viewers of 13 Reasons Why.	2
Swiping right for “Mr Right”: An investigation into the relationship between tinder use and relationship attitudes and behaviors in Australian female emerging adults.	2
Activism through fandom for the Black Lives Matter movement.	2
Measurement and correlates of celebrity culture hate.	2
Situational and personal determinants of adolescents’ attitudes toward online celebrity bashing.	2
Preference for violent video games: The role of emotion regulation, alexithymia, affect intensity, and sensation seeking in a population of French video gamers.	2
Exploring the links between perceptions of protection and control online and social connectedness among socially anxious youth.	2
Belongingness needs mediate the link between attachment anxiety and parasocial relationship strength.	2
How popular are pop stars? The false consensus of perceived celebrity popularity.	2
Editorial.	1
Supplemental Material for Parasocial Relationships as Functional Social Alternatives During Pandemic-Induced Social Distancing	1
Young love on the big screen: A content analysis of romantic ideals, challenges, hookups, and long-term relationships in teen romantic drama movies.	1
The green side of parasocial romantic relationships: An exploratory investigation of parasocial jealousy.	1
Strange new worlds: Social content in popular Star Trek fanfiction versus commercial novels.	1
An examination of viewers’ mental model drawings after they watched a transgender-themed TV narrative.	1
Binge-watching to feel better: Mental health gratifications sought and obtained through binge-watching.	1
Connecting the pro-recovery eating disorder community: An analysis of the language on science, Twitter, and Reddit.	1
The effects of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) on modality, mood, and mindfulness (3Ms).	1
Subtle threat cues in marketing horror and children’s entertainment.	1
I’ll see your beautified photo and raise you one: An experimental investigation of the effect of edited social media photo exposure.	1
Big data, actually: Examining systematic messaging in 188 romantic comedies using unsupervised machine learning.	1
Black lives matter, Black stories matter, Black voices matter: Black Lives Matter protests, COVID-19, and streaming services.	1
Looking to the stars: Validating the existence of para-couple relationships among emerging adults.	1
Perceptions of health changes and support for self-limiting social media use among young adults in Finland—A qualitative study.	1
Are fatigued users fleeing social media? A three-level meta-analysis on the association between social media fatigue and social media use.	1
South African university students’ use of mental health content on Instagram.	1

Exploring identity and coping among Black viewers of Marvel’s Black Panther.	1
Magical thinking and fans of fictional texts.	1
Limiting social media use decreases depression, anxiety, and fear of missing out in youth with emotional distress: A randomized controlled trial.	1
Are you still watching? Antecedents and outcomes of binge-watching.	1
Losing parasocial friendships over celebrity politics: A cognitive discrepancies approach.	1
Examining the self- and others-oriented effects of exposure to a mental health narrative.	1
Straw men, bogus claims, and misinformation about media violence: Reply to comment by Devilly et al. (2023).	1
Supplemental Material for Disappearing in the Age of Hypervisibility: Definition, Context, and Perceived Psychological Consequences of Social Media Ghosting	1
“You have to know how to live with it without getting to the addiction part”: British young adult experiences of smartphone overreliance and disconnectivity.	1
Exploring the association between Twitch use and well-being.	1
Ariel, Aurora, or Anna? Disney princess body size as a predictor of body esteem and gendered play in early childhood.	1
The thin-ideal across two cultural contexts: The role of body image inflexibility and the fear of negative evaluation.	1
Personal comedy that resonates? Gun control, Uvalde, and identification with Jimmy Kimmel.	1
Living for the likes: Social media use, fear of missing out, and body and life satisfaction in women.	1
Using comics and tweets to raise awareness about gender biases in STEM.	1
The effect of gender stereotype content, program congruity, and liking on unconventional French television advertisement recall and purchase intention.	1
Parent social media use and gaming on mobile phones, technoference in family time, and parenting stress.	1
Crime in your area: Use of neighborhood apps is associated with inaccurate perceptions of higher local crime rates.	1
Social media use and body image concerns for midlife and older women.	1
Media portrayals of sexual consent and refusal influence adolescents’ gender-related attitudes.	1
The fairest of them all: Representations of bodies across Disney animated films from 1937 to 2019.	1
An unsafe space: Sexualization, dehumanization, and the harassment of women on social media.	1
The effect of TikTok body neutrality content on young women’s self-compassion.	0
Television awards and integrative complexity: A preliminary linguistic examination.	0
Following up on #fitspiration: A comparative content analysis and thematic analysis of social media content aiming to inspire fitness from 2014 and 2021.	0
Black college students navigating digital environments: A qualitative analysis of peer racial socialization.	0
The impacts of cinematic portrayal of human virtues.	0
Psychology of Popular Media is, well, popular.	0
That’s disgusting! Why disgust increases enjoyment of crime dramas.	0
Time travels on Instagram: A longitudinal investigation of parasocial interaction with a historical person and the impact on followers’ morality.	0
Supplemental Material for Women’s Exposure to Sexualized TV, Self-Objectification, and Consideration of Cosmetic Surgery: The Role of Age	0
Supplemental Material for “Ur a Freakin Goddess!”: Examining Appearance Commentary on Instagram	0
Sexism and racism negatively predict preference for diverse characters in Star Wars fans.	0
From fun to fantasy: Gaming experiences, perceived presence, and adolescent romantic parasocial attachments in romantic video games.	0
Supplemental Material for Problematic Video Gaming Is Associated With Poor Sleep Quality, Diet Quality, and Personal Hygiene	0
Supplemental Material for Who Finds Media Violence Funny? Testing the Effects of Media Violence Exposure and Dark Personality Traits	0
It's a “pattern” of time: Exploring flow experience in autonomous sensory meridian response videos.	0
Supplemental Material for The Role of Different Screen Media Devices, Child Dysregulation, and Parent Screen Media Use in Children’s Self-Regulation	0
Supplemental Material for Strange New Worlds: Social Content in Popular Star Trek Fanfiction Versus Commercial Novels	0
Enhancing brand equity through branded content experience on social media: Developing and testing a moderated mediation model.	0
Correction to “online communities and identity: Experiences of LGBTQIA+ emerging adults engaging with LGBTQIA+ online content during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Penfold et al. (2024).	0
Patterns of child and adolescent digital media use: Associations with school support, engagement, and cybervictimization.	0
Code of honor: Honor ideology as a predictor of liking for popular films.	0
Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between young student women’s experiences of everyday sexual harassment on social media and self-objectification, body shame, and personal safety anxiety	0
Longitudinal dynamics of self-presentation in face-to-face and messenger-based communication.	0
Self-simming while Black: Examining a petition to improve black representation in Sims 4.	0
Loving Shuang Ju: Chinese audiences’ entertainment experience of retribution narratives.	0
Supplemental Material for The Effect of Short-Form Video Usage on Self-Expansion	0
Supplemental Material for Are Fatigued Users Fleeing Social Media? A Three-Level Meta-Analysis on the Association Between Social Media Fatigue and Social Media Use	0
Other-focus versus self-focus: The power of self-transcendent TV shows.	0
Wine mom culture: Investigating social media influence on mothers’ alcohol norms.	0
“Using Comics and tweets to raise awareness about gender biases in STEM.” Correction to Freedman, Green, Kaufman, and Flanagan (2022).	0
Deconstructing age-related messages in the Billboard Hot 100.	0
Correction to “limiting social media use decreases depression, anxiety, and fear of missing out in youth with emotional distress: A randomized controlled trial” by Davis and Goldfield (2024).	0
Supplemental Material for Sensing the Media Character: The Experience of Parasocial Interaction, But Not Identification, as a Real Physical Occurrence	0
Reviewer Acknowledgments 2022	0
Supplemental Material for Other-Focus Versus Self-Focus: The Power of Self-Transcendent TV Shows	0
Supplemental Material for Crime in Your Area: Use of Neighborhood Apps Is Associated With Inaccurate Perceptions of Higher Local Crime Rates	0
Supplemental Material for Antecedents and Consequences of Smartphone Self-Extension	0
Supplemental Material for Postexposure Engagement With More and Less Eudaimonic Films: 10-Year Patterns of Response and the Role of Parasocial Relationship and Retrospective Imaginative Involvement	0
Supplemental Material for A Network Analysis of Facebook Use and Well-Being in Relation to Key Psychological Variables: Replication and Extension	0
Understanding the attraction to music containing violent themes: A qualitative analysis.	0
Supplemental Material for Subtle Threat Cues in Marketing Horror and Children’s Entertainment	0
Supplemental Material for The Effects of Awe-Inspiring Nature Videos on Connectedness to Nature and Proenvironmental Intentions	0
Interventions to reduce the negative impact of online highly visual social networking site use on mental health outcomes: A scoping review.	0
Supplemental Material for Qualitative and Quantitative Investigations of Office Fans’ Connections With Fictional and Celebrity Couples: Identification, Parasocial Relationships, and Beyond	0
Exploring the motives for watching horror movies: A replication and extension.	0
"Belongingness needs mediate the link between attachment anxiety and parasocial relationship strength": Correction.	0
Online communities and identity: Experiences of LGBTQIA+ emerging adults engaging with LGBTQIA+ online content during the COVID-19 pandemic.	0
Rating heroes, antiheroes, and villains: Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism predict admiration for and perceived similarity to morally questionable characters.	0
Rolling minds: A conversational media to promote intergroup contact by countering racial misinformation through socioanalytic processing in adolescence.	0
Navigating the social landscape of Instagram: Exploring the experiences, motivations, and perceptions of eating disorder recovery content creators.	0
Qualitative and quantitative investigations of Office fans’ connections with fictional and celebrity couples: Identification, parasocial relationships, and beyond.	0
Supplemental Material for Random App of Kindness: Evaluating the Potential of a Smartphone Intervention to Impact Adolescents’ Empathy, Prosocial Behavior, and Aggression	0
The effects of awe-inspiring nature videos on connectedness to nature and proenvironmental intentions.	0
Narrative persuasion across the aisle: Mechanisms of engagement with discordant characters.	0
A moderated mediation model of the relationship between passive social network usages and life satisfaction.	0
From inglorious basterds, aliens, and hobbits: The structure of fictional film genre preferences and its relationship with time perspective and individual time span orientation.	0
Supplemental Material for Extensions of the Proteus Effect on Intergroup Aggression in the Real World	0
Associations between intentions for affective social media content choices and depressive symptoms in adolescence: A cross-sectional investigation of media response styles as moderators.	0
Supplemental Material for Maternal Technology Distraction and Its Associations With Stress and Parenting During the COVID-19 Pandemic	0
Supplemental Material for Time Travels on Instagram: A Longitudinal Investigation of Parasocial Interaction With a Historical Person and the Impact on Followers’ Morality	0
Supplemental Material for “To Be Yourself or Your Selfies, That Is the Question”: The Moderation Role of Gender, Nationality, and Privacy Settings in the Relationship Between Selfie-Engagement and Bod	0
Supplemental Material for Development and Validation of the Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale	0
Physiological stress responses to mental illness narratives.	0
Supplemental Material for The Big Five and Beyond: Which Personality Traits Do Predict Movie and Reading Preferences?	0
2021 Acknowledgments	0
Women in fandom: Participation patterns and perceived authenticity.	0
Supplemental Material for Navigating a Muscular and Sexualized Instagram Feed: An Experimental Study Examining How Instagram Affects Both Heterosexual and Nonheterosexual Men’s Body Image	0
Exploring the effect of organization–employee relationships on employee communication behaviors on social media: The moderating role of position level.	0
A content analysis method for coding movie content using movie trailers.	0
From filters to body positivity: Opposing social media messages and adolescent body image.	0
The association between social media use and body dissatisfaction: Exploring a potential mechanism of action in an experimental design.	0
Me, myself, and my avatar: Self-discrepancy, embodiment, and narrative involvement in gaming experiences.	0
Influences of online computer-mediated activities on the development of aggressive behavior: A systematic literature review comparing Eurasian regions.	0