Psychology of Popular Media

Article	Citations
Facebook-based social support and health: A systematic review.	71
The use of social networking sites, body image dissatisfaction, and body dysmorphic disorder: A systematic review of psychological research.	63
Lack of consensus among scholars on the issue of video game “addiction”.	36
Every (Insta)Gram counts? Applying cultivation theory to explore the effects of Instagram on young users’ body image.	36
Emojis affect processing fluency on social media.	31
Personality as a predictor of cybersecurity behavior.	30
Alone and online: Understanding the relationships between social media, solitude, and psychological adjustment.	25
Problematic phone use, depression, and technology interference among mothers.	22
Are there two types of escapism? Exploring a dualistic model of escapism in digital gaming and online streaming.	21
Escaping the pandemic present: The relationship between nostalgic media use, escapism, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.	21
Internet gaming disorder: Relations between needs satisfaction in-game and in life in general.	20
Consuming memes during the COVID pandemic: Effects of memes and meme type on COVID-related stress and coping efficacy.	19
“My smartphone is an extension of myself”: A holistic qualitative exploration of the impact of using a smartphone.	18
Cognitive abilities of action video game and role-playing video game players: Data from a massive open online course.	18
A closer look at appearance and social media: Measuring activity, self-presentation, and social comparison and their associations with emotional adjustment.	17
Solving the puzzle of null violent media effects.	17
You’re not anonymous online: The development and validation of a new cyberbullying intervention curriculum.	17
Entertainment motivations and gaming-specific gratifications as antecedents of digital game enjoyment and appreciation.	15
The impact of fitspiration content on body satisfaction and negative mood: An experimental study.	15
Coping with COVID-19 stress: The role of media consumption in emotion- and problem-focused coping.	15
Disappearing in the age of hypervisibility: Definition, context, and perceived psychological consequences of social media ghosting.	13
“It’s like a safe haven fantasy world”: Online fandom communities and the identity development activities of sexual and gender minority youth.	13
Dancing bears and talking toasters: A content analysis of supernatural elements in children’s media.	13
He does not look like video games made him do it: Racial stereotypes and school shootings.	12
The psychology of likes: Relevance of feedback on Instagram and relationship to self-esteem and social status.	12

Smartphones and loneliness in love: Testing links between smartphone engagement, loneliness, and relational health.	12
Perceptions of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploration.	12
Motivation for different Facebook activities and well-being: A daily experience sampling study.	11
Video game players’ personality traits: An exploratory cluster approach to identifying gaming preferences.	11
Social comparison and state–trait dynamics: Viewing image-conscious Instagram accounts affects college students’ mood and anxiety.	11
Who are GamerGate? A descriptive study of individuals involved in the GamerGate controversy.	11
The social effect of exposure to mental illness media portrayals: Influencing interpersonal interaction intentions.	11
Unsatisfied needs as a predictor of obsessive passion for videogame play.	11
Associations between parental media monitoring, media use, and internalizing symptoms during adolescence.	11
Binge-watching in times of COVID-19: A longitudinal examination of changes in affect and TV series consumption patterns during lockdown.	11
The relationship between social short-form videos and youth’s well-being: It depends on usage types and content categories.	11
The relation of Black-oriented reality television consumption and perceived realism to the endorsement of stereotypes of Black women.	11
Natural in the eyes of the (be)holder: A survey on novelty and learning effects in the enjoyment of naturally mapped video game controllers.	10
How audience involvement and social norms foster vulnerability to celebrity-based dietary misinformation.	10
Using narrative media to satisfy intrinsic needs: Connecting parasocial relationships, retrospective imaginative involvement, and self-determination theory.	10
Fiction and morality: Investigating the associations between reading exposure, empathy, morality, and moral judgment.	9
Dark personality traits and anger in cyber aggression perpetration: Is moral disengagement to blame?	9
Psychological effects of repeated exposure to elevating entertainment: An experiment over the period of 6 weeks.	8
Not all media multitasking is the same: The frequency of media multitasking depends on cognitive and affective characteristics of media combinations.	8
A new avenue to reach out for the stars: The association of celebrity worship with problematic and nonproblematic social media use.	8
Fandom, social media, and identity work: The emergence of virtual community through the pronoun “we”.	8
Policy on unreliable game addiction diagnoses puts the cart before the horse.	8
Self-control and need satisfaction in primetime: Television, social media, and friends can enhance regulatory resources via perceived autonomy and competence.	8
“Get out of my selfie!” Narcissism, gender, and motives for self-photography among emerging adults.	7
Inspired to mask up: The effect of uplifting media messages on attitudes about wearing face masks among Democrats and Republicans.	7
Selfie appearance investment and peer feedback concern: Multimethod investigation of adolescent selfie practices and adjustment.	7
Examining the effects of exposure to a sexualized female video game protagonist on women’s body image.	7
The effects of interaction fidelity on game experience in virtual reality.	7
Looking through a filtered lens: Negative social comparison on social media and suicidal ideation among young adults.	7
Online original TV series: Examining portrayals of violence in popular binge-watched programs and social reality perceptions.	6
Fear of missing out and compulsive social media use as mediators between OCD symptoms and social media fatigue.	6
“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.	6
Tourism, migration, and the exodus to virtual worlds: Place attachment in massively multiplayer online gamers.	6
“Ur a freakin goddess!”: Examining appearance commentary on Instagram.	6
The role of need satisfaction in explaining intentions to purchase and play in Pokémon Go and the moderating role of prior experience.	6
Gotta catch ‘em all: Exploring the use of Pokémon Go to enhance cognition and affect.	6
Parenting and tweens’ media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.	6
Is it painful? Playing violent video games affects brain responses to painful pictures: An event-related potential study.	5
Disparaged dads? A content analysis of depictions of fathers in U.S. sitcoms over time.	5
Who finds media violence funny? Testing the effects of media violence exposure and dark personality traits.	5
Twitch in the time of quarantine: The role of engagement in needs fulfillment.	5
Ontological insecurity, nostalgia, and social media: Viewing YouTube videos of old TV commercials reestablishes continuity of the self over time.	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 babies, infants, and toddlers hear on Fox/Disney BabyTV: An exploratory study.	5
Loving to hate the Kardashians: Examining the interaction of character liking and hate-watching on the social influence of a reality TV show.	5
“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.	5
When comedy goes to extremes: The influence of ideology and social identity on source liking, credibility, and counterarguing.	5
Personality perception in Game of Thrones: Character consensus and assumed similarity.	4
Women’s exposure to sexualized TV, self-objectification, and consideration of cosmetic surgery: The role of age.	4

Mirror, mirror on the wall: The effect of listening to body positive music on implicit and explicit body esteem.	4
Navigating a muscular and sexualized Instagram feed: An experimental study examining how Instagram affects both heterosexual and nonheterosexual men’s body image.	4
Discovering hidden digital producers: Understanding motivation and creativity in social media production.	4
Predicting internet addiction with the dark triad: Beyond the five-factor model.	4
Social norms and social identity explain the selection and anticipated enjoyment of in-group versus out-group films.	4
Adolescents’ perceptions of nicotine vaping-related social media content.	4
Extensions of the proteus effect on intergroup aggression in the real world.	4
Reducing social media use improves appearance and weight esteem in youth with emotional distress.	4
The effects of daily Instagram use on state self-objectification, well-being, and mood for young women.	4
Together they are Troy and Chase: Who supports demonetization of gay content on YouTube?	4
Seeing is believing: The role of imagery fluency in narrative persuasion through a graphic novel.	4
What does the Cat in the Hat know about that? An analysis of the educational and unrealistic content of children’s narrative science media.	4
Celebrity worship in the United Arab Emirates: An examination of its association with problematic internet use, maladaptive daydreaming, and desire for fame.	4
Movie smoking and teen smoking behavior: A critical methodological and meta-analytic review.	4
Identification with characters in parasocial relationships predicts sharing their personality traits.	3
College students’ media habits, concern for themselves and others, and mental health in the era of COVID-19.	3
Just my imagination: The influence of celebrities’ romantic relationship announcements on romance fans and friendship fans.	3
Love, desire, and problematic behaviors: Exploring young adults’ smartphone use from a uses and gratifications perspective.	3
The costs of sexualization: Examining viewers’ perceptions of sexualized profile owners in online dating.	3
Further tests of the media violence–aggression link: Replication and extension of the 7 Nations Project with multiple Latinx samples.	3
Pressure, preoccupation, and porn: The relationship between internet pornography, gendered attitudes, and sexual coercion in young adults.	3
The dark side of antiheroes: Antisocial tendencies and affinity for morally ambiguous characters.	3
Celebrity hate: Credibility and belief in a just world in prediction of celebrity hate.	3
Conjuring up the departed in virtual reality: The good, the bad, and the potentially ugly.	3
The impact of domain-specific interest on exemplification effects in sports media.	3
Conceptualizing identification: A comment on Downs, Bowman, and Banks (2017).	3
Recognition as a measure of television exposure: Multiple measures and their relationship to theory of mind.	3
Is that a real woman? Reality TV viewing and black viewers’ beliefs about femininity.	3
Interactive decision-making in entertainment movies: A mixed-methods approach.	3
Apologies in the #MeToo moment.	3
Digital media impacts multiple aspects of self-representation: An investigation of flow, agency, presence, character identification, and time perception.	3
If your girl only knew: The effects of infidelity-themed song lyrics on cognitions related to infidelity.	3
Female-oriented dating sims in China: Players’ parasocial relationships, gender attitudes, and romantic beliefs.	3
Examining the postpartum period through social media: A content and thematic analysis of #postpartum Instagram posts.	3
Response to “Conceptualizing identification: A comment on Downs, Bowman, and Banks (2017)”.	3
Mimetic representations of the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of objectification, anchoring, and identification processes in coronavirus memes.	3
Queer folklore: Examining the influence of fandom on sexual identity development and fluidity acceptance among Taylor Swift fans.	3
Measurement and correlates of celebrity culture hate.	2
Entertainment and social media use during social distancing: Examining trait differences in transportability and need for social assurance.	2
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: Simultaneously examining the association between three social networking sites and relationship stress and satisfaction.	2
Less is more when rating extraversion: Behavioral cues and interpersonal perceptions on the platform of facebook.	2
Should the cat in the hat keep talking like that? Educational correlates of anthropomorphism in children's science media.	2
Problematic video gaming is associated with poor sleep quality, diet quality, and personal hygiene.	2
Achieving the ideal-self while harming my relationship: Examining associations between self-discrepancy, instagram photo manipulation, and romantic relationship outcomes.	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
Better than scrolling: Digital detox in the search for the ideal self.	2
The prosocial and cathartic potential of immersive media on eudaimonic entertainment experiences.	2
The role of cliffhangers in serial entertainment: An experiment on cliffhangers’ effects on enjoyment, arousal, and intention to continue watching.	2
One of us or one of them? How “peripheral” adverts on social media affect the social categorization of sociopolitical message givers.	2
Directional is the new null? A comment on Bushman and Anderson (2021).	2
Exploring the links between perceptions of protection and control online and social connectedness among socially anxious youth.	2
Empathy, narcissism, alexithymia, and social media use.	2
Does gender matter? Comic hosts, audience reception, and the processing of political satire content.	2
That bygone feeling: Controller ergonomics and nostalgia in video game play.	2
Playing with privilege: Examining demographics in choosing player-characters in video games.	2
Situational and personal determinants of adolescents’ attitudes toward online celebrity bashing.	2
Rage in video gaming, characteristics of loss of control among gamers: A qualitative study.	2
Unemployment rate predicts anger in popular music lyrics: Evidence from top 10 songs in the United States and Germany from 1980 to 2017.	2
Do you “like” me? The roles of Facebook reassurance seeking and attachment style on depression.	2
Development and validation of the Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale.	2
When the camera does lie: Selfies are dishonest indicators of dominance.	2
#Instabod versus #BoPo: An experimental study of the effects of viewing idealized versus body-positive content on collegiate males’ and females’ body satisfaction.	2
Women in fiction: Bechdel-Wallace Test results for the highest-grossing movies of the last four decades.	2
Be complex, be very complex: Evaluating the integrative complexity of main characters in horror films.	2
Laughing about a health risk? Alcohol in comedy series and its connection to humor.	2
Binge-watching to feel better: Mental health gratifications sought and obtained through binge-watching.	1
Crime in your area: Use of neighborhood apps is associated with inaccurate perceptions of higher local crime rates.	1
The Big Five and beyond: Which personality traits do predict movie and reading preferences?	1
I’ll see your beautified photo and raise you one: An experimental investigation of the effect of edited social media photo exposure.	1
Prejudice norms in online gaming: Game context and gamer identification as predictors of the acceptability of prejudice.	1
Big data, actually: Examining systematic messaging in 188 romantic comedies using unsupervised machine learning.	1
Postexposure engagement with more and less eudaimonic films: 10-year patterns of response and the role of parasocial relationship and retrospective imaginative involvement.	1
The Virtual Violence Against Women Scale (VVAWS): A measure of players’ experiences of violence against women in video games.	1
Exploring the association between Twitch use and well-being.	1
Problematic smartphone use versus “technoference”: Examining their unique predictive power on relational and life satisfaction.	1
Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution: How engagement, enjoyment, and FoMO predict avoidance of spoilers.	1
Random app of kindness: Evaluating the potential of a smartphone intervention to impact adolescents’ empathy, prosocial behavior, and aggression.	1
Ariel, Aurora, or Anna? Disney princess body size as a predictor of body esteem and gendered play in early childhood.	1
Other-focus versus self-focus: The power of self-transcendent TV shows.	1
Using comics and tweets to raise awareness about gender biases in STEM.	1

Examining the self- and others-oriented effects of exposure to a mental health narrative.	1
Hetero-(sex)pectations: Exploring the link between compulsive pornography consumption, heterosexual script endorsement, and hookups among emerging adults.	1
Exploring identity and coping among Black viewers of Marvel’s Black Panther.	1
Whose bed have your boots been under? People's expected responses toward celebrities’ romantic relationship infidelity.	1
Unfulfilled romantic needs: Effects of relationship status, presence of romantic partners, and relationship satisfaction on romantic parasocial phenomena.	1
How popular are pop stars? The false consensus of perceived celebrity popularity.	1
The associations between parents’ technoference, their problematic use of digital technology, and the psychological state of their children.	1
Self-compassion and women's experience of social media content portraying body positivity and appearance ideals.	1
Looking to the stars: Validating the existence of para-couple relationships among emerging adults.	1
Linking adolescents’ exposure to and identification with reality TV to materialism, narcissism, and entitlement.	1
Editorial.	1
Perceptions of health changes and support for self-limiting social media use among young adults in Finland—A qualitative study.	1
Select your character: Individual needs and avatar choice.	1
Intergroup contact with a virtual refugee: Reducing prejudice through a cooperative game.	1
Magical thinking and fans of fictional texts.	1
Are you still watching? Antecedents and outcomes of binge-watching.	1
The green side of parasocial romantic relationships: An exploratory investigation of parasocial jealousy.	1
The dark triad of personality and hero/villain status as predictors of parasocial relationships with comic book characters.	1
Parent–child communication about gender and race through the films Black Panther and Wonder Woman: The roles of parental mediation and media literacy.	1
The fairest of them all: Representations of bodies across Disney animated films from 1937 to 2019.	1
Connecting the pro-recovery eating disorder community: An analysis of the language on science, Twitter, and Reddit.	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
Character immersion in video games as a form of acting.	1
Social media usage is associated with lower knowledge about anxiety and indiscriminate use of anxiety coping strategies.	1
Black lives matter, Black stories matter, Black voices matter: Black Lives Matter protests, COVID-19, and streaming services.	1
Supplemental Material for Parasocial Relationships as Functional Social Alternatives During Pandemic-Induced Social Distancing	1
The role of different screen media devices, child dysregulation, and parent screen media use in children’s self-regulation.	1
Predicting the use of YouTube and content exposure among 10–12-year-old children: Dispositional, developmental, and social factors.	1
The role of different characters on story-consistent attitudes and self-reported mental health-related behavior change among viewers of 13 Reasons Why.	1
An examination of viewers’ mental model drawings after they watched a transgender-themed TV narrative.	1