Psychology of Popular Media

Article	Citations
Qualitative and quantitative investigations of Office fans’ connections with fictional and celebrity couples: Identification, parasocial relationships, and beyond.	67
The influence of peripheral cues on information elaboration during credibility evaluation of Chinese social media messages: Insights from self-reports and eye-tracking experiments.	43
What does the Cat in the Hat know about that? An analysis of the educational and unrealistic content of children’s narrative science media.	40
Me, myself, and my avatar: Self-discrepancy, embodiment, and narrative involvement in gaming experiences.	33
Supplemental Material for The Effect of Short-Form Video Usage on Self-Expansion	28
Supplemental Material for Video Games as Conduits for Radicalization: Impact of Exposure to Extremist Recruitment and Authoritarianism on Sexist Attitudes and Aggression	27
Differential pathways linking social pain to internet-related addictive behaviors: The mediating roles of self-compassion and social anxiety across socioeconomic status groups.	26
Random app of kindness: Evaluating the potential of a smartphone intervention to impact adolescents’ empathy, prosocial behavior, and aggression.	26
The expansion of the chūnibyō experience in Thailand.	23
Supplemental Material for Other-Focus Versus Self-Focus: The Power of Self-Transcendent TV Shows	23
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	19
Looking to the stars: Validating the existence of para-couple relationships among emerging adults.	16
Rating heroes, antiheroes, and villains: Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism predict admiration for and perceived similarity to morally questionable characters.	15
A moderated mediation model of the relationship between passive social network usages and life satisfaction.	15
Can the social network bridge social distancing? Social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.	14
The effects of awe-inspiring nature videos on connectedness to nature and proenvironmental intentions.	14
The portrayal of mental illness in popular children's programs on Netflix: A content and thematic analysis.	14
Social media usage is associated with lower knowledge about anxiety and indiscriminate use of anxiety coping strategies.	13
Supplemental Material for Rage in Video Gaming, Characteristics of Loss of Control Among Gamers: A Qualitative Study	13
The “ideal” body according to artificial intelligence: Body image implications for athletes and nonathletes.	13
Supplemental Material for Physiological Stress Responses to Mental Illness Narratives	13
From online to offline: Pathways from active social media use to proenvironmental behaviors through the lens of construal level theory.	13
Reviewer Acknowledgments 2025	12
Exploring public perceptions of social media: A preregistered mixed-methods study.	12
It's a “pattern” of time: Exploring flow experience in autonomous sensory meridian response videos.	11

Reviewer Acknowledgments 2024	11
Supplemental Material for Developing and Testing an Explanatory Model of Complete Mental Health in Tabletop Role-Playing Games	11
Supplemental Material for Queer on TV: Using the Minority Stress Model to Explore the Role of LGBQ+ Television Exposure in LGBQ+ Audiences’ Psychological Well-Being and Identity Status	11
Testing the direct and indirect relationship between media violence exposure and cyberbullying perpetration.	11
The effects of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) on modality, mood, and mindfulness (3Ms).	10
Supplemental Material for Association Between Gaming Disorder and Internalizing Symptoms Among Children and Adolescents: A Child–Parent Dyadic Study	10
Time for digital media but no time for school? An investigation of displacement effects among adolescents of gen X, Y, and Z.	10
Supplemental Material for Older and Wiser, but Not Immune: A Brief Report Examining Movie Exposure and Male Body Image Across Development	10
Supplemental Material for Rating Heroes, Antiheroes, and Villains: Machiavellianism, Grandiose Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sadism Predict Admiration for and Perceived Similarity to Morally Questionab	10
Who stans celebrities on social media? The role of gender, sexual orientation, and political ideology.	10
Losing parasocial friendships over celebrity politics: A cognitive discrepancies approach.	10
Supplemental Material for Seeing and Being Seen: A Latent Class Analysis of Social Media Use Among Young Individuals With Visible Differences and Its Links to Sociodemographic Characteristics, Norms,	10
"The fairest of them all: Representations of bodies across Disney animated films from 1937 to 2019": Correction.	10
Media prescriptions for goal achievement: The differential effect of inspiring versus humorous content.	10
Supplemental Material for Watching the Misfortunes of Others: Immoral Behavior but Not Responsibility Leads to Schadenfreude About Fail Video Clips	10
#Instabod versus #BoPo: An experimental study of the effects of viewing idealized versus body-positive content on collegiate males’ and females’ body satisfaction.	10
Inspiration for perspiration? Two experiments testing the psychological effects of fitspiration.	9
Shared screens: Scripted television's communal space in a polarized nation.	9
Comparison of listening experiences by podcast styles: Monologue versus dialogue.	9
Effects of self-objectification on viewers’ narrative engagement.	9
Supplemental Material for Social Media Addiction Moderates Links Between Perceptions of Freedom and Mental Health in the United States and Germany	9
Supplemental Material for The Association Between Social Support and Internet Addiction: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis of 184 Studies	9
Supplemental Material for How Anthropomorphic Animal Representations in Nature Documentaries Are Related to Entertainment Experience and Persuasive Effects	8
What is in a hashtag? A comparative content analysis of fitspiration, body positivity, and body neutrality posts on Instagram.	8
Keep your head in the game: Retrospective imaginative involvement with video game narratives.	8
Children’s vocabulary, math, and social-emotional learning from interactive media: The role of choice, agency, and repetition in app design.	8
The associations between parents’ technoference, their problematic use of digital technology, and the psychological state of their children.	8
That’s not supposed to happen! Spoilers’ impact on experience of narratives with (un)expected endings.	8
SPACE to esc: Affective and motivational correlates to adaptive and maladaptive escapism among video gamers—A network analysis.	8
Solving the puzzle of null violent media effects.	7
Stuck in the DMs: The association between introversion/extraversion and self-confidence through text-based communication.	7
Queer folklore: Examining the influence of fandom on sexual identity development and fluidity acceptance among Taylor Swift fans.	7
Measurement and correlates of celebrity culture hate.	7
Connecting the pro-recovery eating disorder community: An analysis of the language on science, Twitter, and Reddit.	7
Directional is the new null? A comment on Bushman and Anderson (2021).	7
Being asked to dance: Evidence of racial bias in audience voting behavior on the television show Strictly Come Dancing.	7
The green side of parasocial romantic relationships: An exploratory investigation of parasocial jealousy.	7
The effects of memes on perceptions and decision making: Insights from fuzzy-trace theory.	7
The puzzle of engagement: An interview study on the subjective experience of engagement with mainstream narrational complexity.	7
Supplemental Material for Investigating the Effect of Full and Partial Social Media Abstinence on Fear of Missing Out and Well-Being Outcomes: A Daily Diary Experimental Approach	7
Supplemental Material for Prevalence and Correlates of Phantom Phone Signals: A Machine Learning-Assisted Systematic Review and Multilevel Meta-Analysis	7
“I see dead people”: Exploring the associations between watching horror and belief in the paranormal.	6
Supplemental Material for Investigating the Direct and Indirect Longitudinal Relationships Between Social Media Use and Life Satisfaction via Cosmopolitanism: A 6-Year Cohort Study of Adults	6
Supplemental Material for Maternal Technology Distraction and Its Associations With Stress and Parenting During the COVID-19 Pandemic	6
Supplemental Material for Can We Separate the Character From the Creator? An Exploratory Study on Parasocial Relationships	6
Time travels on Instagram: A longitudinal investigation of parasocial interaction with a historical person and the impact on followers’ morality.	6
Social media use and body image concerns for midlife and older women.	6
Supplemental Material for Qualitative and Quantitative Investigations of Office Fans’ Connections With Fictional and Celebrity Couples: Identification, Parasocial Relationships, and Beyond	6
Pressure, preoccupation, and porn: The relationship between internet pornography, gendered attitudes, and sexual coercion in young adults.	6
Prevalence and correlates of phantom phone signals: A machine learning-assisted systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis.	5

Does the dog die? Empathic distress and spoilers as self-protection.	5
Better than scrolling: Digital detox in the search for the ideal self.	5
Exploring the motives for watching horror movies: A replication and extension.	5
Exploring the association between Twitch use and well-being.	5
A cognitive behavioral therapy-based microintervention to reduce the negative impact of Instagram use on well-being: A randomized controlled trial.	5
Judging characters by their cover? Surface-level similarities, deep-level similarities, and parasocial relationships.	5
Ideology and gender essentialism: Rethinking attitudes toward the movie Barbie beyond simple gender perspectives.	5
Select your character: Individual needs and avatar choice.	5
Recognizing the similarities and appreciating the differences? Content choices and perceived (dis)similarity with TV show characters among youth.	5
Prepare to DEI: Addressing GamerGate through political opinions and cultural values in gaming communities.	5
Young love on the big screen: A content analysis of romantic ideals, challenges, hookups, and long-term relationships in teen romantic drama movies.	5
A content analysis method for coding movie content using movie trailers.	5
Supplemental Material for Lost in the Scroll: Emotional Impacts of Social Media Use Among Middle-Aged Adults	5
Self-simming while Black: Examining a petition to improve black representation in Sims 4.	5
Wine mom culture: Investigating social media influence on mothers’ alcohol norms.	4
Fitspiration, related risks, and coping strategies: Recent trends and future directions.	4
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).	4
Linking adolescents’ exposure to and identification with reality TV to materialism, narcissism, and entitlement.	4
Why lurk, why join, and why post? The uses and gratifications of lurkers, infrequent posters, and frequent posters in the brand community context.	4
Social networking sites use exacerbates appearance anxiety in young Chinese women: The moderating role of self-concept clarity.	4
Supplemental Material for Appreciating Sadness: Understanding the Emotional Engagement With Sad TV Series in Turkey	4
Supplemental Material for Problematic Social Media Use Increases With Fear of Missing Out Among Young Adults: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study	4
Straw men, bogus claims, and misinformation about media violence: Reply to comment by Devilly et al. (2023).	4
Erratum to “The effect of TikTok body neutrality content on young women’s self-compassion” by Seekis and Lawrence (2024).	4
Supplemental Material for Content of Social Media Fitspiration and Its Effect on Physical Activity-Related Behavior: A Systematic Review	4
Navigating the social landscape of Instagram: Exploring the experiences, motivations, and perceptions of eating disorder recovery content creators.	4
Enhancing brand equity through branded content experience on social media: Developing and testing a moderated mediation model.	4
Supplemental Material for Self-Compassion and Women's Experience of Social Media Content Portraying Body Positivity and Appearance Ideals	4
Empathy, narcissism, alexithymia, and social media use.	4
Supplemental Material for The Portrayal of Mental Illness in Popular Children's Programs on Netflix: A Content and Thematic Analysis	4
Supplemental Material for Interventions to Reduce the Negative Impact of Online Highly Visual Social Networking Site Use on Mental Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review	4
Subtle threat cues in marketing horror and children’s entertainment.	4
The impact of spatiotemporal and sociocultural Heimat associations in entertaining television programs on social identity, positive affect, and intergroup relations.	4
Uses of media representation in LGBTQ adults’ relationship with their parent: Individual, relational, and sociocultural contexts.	4
Character immersion in video games as a form of acting.	4
Media versus meditation: A comparison of the stress-relieving benefits of multiple media experiences.	4
Examining the postpartum period through social media: A content and thematic analysis of #postpartum Instagram posts.	4
The “ideal versus real” social media posts increase female adults’ body appreciation.	4
Interventions to reduce the negative impact of online highly visual social networking site use on mental health outcomes: A scoping review.	4
Adolescents’ perceptions of nicotine vaping-related social media content.	4
A continuous-space description of video games: A preliminary investigation.	3
Supplemental Material for Romantic Ideas and Ideals in Popular Music: A Content Analysis of the Taylor Swift Musical Catalog	3
“His fight or flight kicked in and here we are”: Investigating the construction of a perpetrator within a dark fandom.	3
Understanding social media appearance preoccupation: The role of body image emotions.	3
Supplemental Material for Writing and Reading Fan Fiction: The Roles of Self and Social Media	3
Supplemental Material for “But They Don’t Look Like Someone With an Eating Disorder”: A Content Analysis of Representation in TV and Film Portrayals of Characters With Eating Disorders	3
Activism through fandom for the Black Lives Matter movement.	3
“Makes me feel like I was born in the wrong era”: Gamer self-efficacy and appreciation, rather than controller type, correlate with historical nostalgia when playing a retrogame.	3
Supplemental Material for The Effect of Types of Language Mistakes on the Persuasiveness of User-Generated Content on Facebook	3
Mood repair following eudaimonic media selection.	3
Supplemental Material for One Fit(Spiration) for All? Gender Differences in Body Satisfaction	3
Belongingness needs mediate the link between attachment anxiety and parasocial relationship strength.	3
Supplemental Material for Unraveling the Links Between Maternal and Paternal Parenting Practices and Adolescent Problematic Gaming: The Mediating Role of Satisfaction and Frustration of Psychological	3
Supplemental Material for Keep Your Head in the Game: Retrospective Imaginative Involvement With Video Game Narratives	3
Sexism and racism negatively predict preference for diverse characters in Star Wars fans.	3
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: Simultaneously examining the association between three social networking sites and relationship stress and satisfaction.	3
Intellectual television harms relaxation, games help us detach? Different attributes of bedtime media are associated with multiple types of recovery.	3
Artificial intelligence storytellers: Audience enjoyment and appreciation of ChatGPT-adapted narratives.	3
Sensing the media character: The experience of parasocial interaction, but not identification, as a real physical occurrence.	3
Problematic video gaming is associated with poor sleep quality, diet quality, and personal hygiene.	3
Journey in the digital era: Exploring doomscrolling, algorithmic literacy, and subjective well-being.	3
The effect of types of language mistakes on the persuasiveness of user-generated content on Facebook.	3
Inspired to mask up: The effect of uplifting media messages on attitudes about wearing face masks among Democrats and Republicans.	3
Seeing and being seen: A latent class analysis of social media use among young individuals with visible differences and its links to sociodemographic characteristics, norms, and body image.	3
For women only? A gendered view on media-based guilty pleasures.	3
I love you, but I have got to cancel you: Psychological consequences of participation in cancel culture.	2
That bygone feeling: Controller ergonomics and nostalgia in video game play.	2
Women in fandom: Participation patterns and perceived authenticity.	2
Further tests of the media violence–aggression link: Replication and extension of the 7 Nations Project with multiple Latinx samples.	2
That’s disgusting! Why disgust increases enjoyment of crime dramas.	2
Content and context correlates of problematic media use in young children.	2
From filters to body positivity: Opposing social media messages and adolescent body image.	2
The role of different screen media devices, child dysregulation, and parent screen media use in children’s self-regulation.	2
Big data, actually: Examining systematic messaging in 188 romantic comedies using unsupervised machine learning.	2
Motivational underpinnings of social media use.	2
Supplemental Material for Exploring How Message and Situational Factors Shape People’s Information Processing and Belief in Fake News on Social Media: The Moderating Role of Status-Seeking Motivation	2
Love, desire, and problematic behaviors: Exploring young adults’ smartphone use from a uses and gratifications perspective.	2
Mental health disorders on Netflix: Analyzing stereotypes across 13 countries using the stereotype content model and machine learning.	2
Self-compassion and women's experience of social media content portraying body positivity and appearance ideals.	2
Perceptions of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploration.	2

The impacts of cinematic portrayal of human virtues.	2
The effect of TikTok body neutrality content on young women’s self-compassion.	2
Exploring the impact of work from home on the effects of social media: A moderated mediation analysis of psychological well-being.	2
Supplemental Material for Media Multitasking, Interference Management Under Uncertainty, and Fluid Intelligence: Indicators of Performance and Flexibility Under Chosen Versus Forced Task Interference	2
Understanding the relations among being a cyber victim, willingness to tell a friend about being a cyber victim, and peer social competence for Chinese children.	2
Crime in your area: Use of neighborhood apps is associated with inaccurate perceptions of higher local crime rates.	2
Looking through a filtered lens: Negative social comparison on social media and suicidal ideation among young adults.	2
Self-administered media prescriptions: Training algorithms to deliver inspirational content to reduce stress and increase goal motivation.	2
Audiences on the dark side: Do antisocial personality traits predict motives for true crime listening?	2
Longitudinal dynamics of self-presentation in face-to-face and messenger-based communication.	2
Associations between intentions for affective social media content choices and depressive symptoms in adolescence: A cross-sectional investigation of media response styles as moderators.	2
How anthropomorphic animal representations in nature documentaries are related to entertainment experience and persuasive effects.	2
Patterns of child and adolescent digital media use: Associations with school support, engagement, and cybervictimization.	2
Black college students navigating digital environments: A qualitative analysis of peer racial socialization.	2
Intergroup contact with a virtual refugee: Reducing prejudice through a cooperative game.	2
Supplemental Material for Time Travels on Instagram: A Longitudinal Investigation of Parasocial Interaction With a Historical Person and the Impact on Followers’ Morality	2
#Grab, #touch, #drink: A content analysis of college party culture in Instagram fraternity pictures.	2
Deepfake! A liar’s dividend for audiovisual material.	1
Are fatigued users fleeing social media? A three-level meta-analysis on the association between social media fatigue and social media use.	1
Supplemental Material for Understanding the Attraction to Music Containing Violent Themes: A Qualitative Analysis	1
Supplemental Material for Dysregulated Gaming and Emotion Regulation Flexibility	1
Living for the likes: Social media use, fear of missing out, and body and life satisfaction in women.	1
Binging on the heartbreak: The effect of binge-watching on narrative engagement and parasocial breakups.	1
Other-focus versus self-focus: The power of self-transcendent TV shows.	1
Supplemental Material for Sensing the Media Character: The Experience of Parasocial Interaction, But Not Identification, as a Real Physical Occurrence	1
“I expect it as part of the kind of package deal when you sign up to these things”—Motivations and experiences of ghosting.	1
The prosocial and cathartic potential of immersive media on eudaimonic entertainment experiences.	1
The effects of daily Instagram use on state self-objectification, well-being, and mood for young women.	1
Supplemental Material for The Impact of Acute and Cumulative Exposure to Violent Film on Social Cognition in University Students	1
“Don't blame me”: Testing the effects of Taylor Swift fan identity on emerging adults’ moral reasoning strategies and environmental cognitions.	1
Into the purple ocean: The formation and dynamics of a transcultural fandom as a result of cultural diffusion through K-pop.	1
Female-oriented dating sims in China: Players’ parasocial relationships, gender attitudes, and romantic beliefs.	1
Experiences of consuming fiction in relation to psychological well-being.	1
Personality perception in Game of Thrones: Character consensus and assumed similarity.	1
Preference for violent video games: The role of emotion regulation, alexithymia, affect intensity, and sensation seeking in a population of French video gamers.	1
The impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race on cisgender, heterosexual individuals’ understanding of LGBTQ+ experiences.	1
Supplemental Material for Uses of Media Representation in LGBTQ Adults’ Relationship With Their Parent: Individual, Relational, and Sociocultural Contexts	1
Supplemental Material for Development and Validation of the Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale	1
Problematic social media use increases with fear of missing out among young adults: A three-wave longitudinal study.	1
Deconstructing age-related messages in the Billboard Hot 100.	1
Supplemental Material for Who Stans Celebrities on Social Media? The Role of Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Political Ideology	1
Exercising empowerment: Mediated fitness technology fostered social connections and personal growth during social isolation.	1
Upward social comparisons and suicidal ideation on Facebook: Moderating role of thwarted belongingness.	1
Who will spend money uncontrollably in video games? The association between video game playing motivations and compulsive gaming buying among players of different genders.	1
Supplemental Material for Tension in Attention: Hypervigilance Helps Explain Why Marginalization Leads to Doomscrolling	1
Social media reduction or abstinence interventions are providing mental health benefits—Reanalysis of a published meta-analysis.	1
Antecedents and consequences of smartphone self-extension.	1
Binge-watching in times of COVID-19: A longitudinal examination of changes in affect and TV series consumption patterns during lockdown.	1
Supplemental Material for The Expansion of the Chūnibyō Experience in Thailand	1
Supplemental Material for “Makes Me Feel Like I Was Born in the Wrong Era”: Gamer Self-Efficacy and Appreciation, Rather Than Controller Type, Correlate With Historical Nostalgia When Playing a Retrog	1
Lost in the scroll: Emotional impacts of social media use among middle-aged adults.	1
Supplemental Material for The “Ideal Versus Real” Social Media Posts Increase Female Adults’ Body Appreciation	1
Supplemental Material for The Effects of Awe-Inspiring Nature Videos on Connectedness to Nature and Proenvironmental Intentions	1
Profiles of risk and resilience: A qualitative exploration of factors influencing nomophobia.	1
Investigating the direct and indirect longitudinal relationships between social media use and life satisfaction via cosmopolitanism: A 6-year cohort study of adults.	1
Twinks, jocks, bears, and cubs: Associations between dating app usage and body image among sexual minority men with lean and nonlean subcultural appearance identities.	1
Effects of avatar behavior on aggression: Mediation of moral self-perception and moderation of avatar identification.	1
Supplemental Material for Understanding Social Media Appearance Preoccupation: The Role of Body Image Emotions	1
Exploring how message and situational factors shape people’s information processing and belief in fake news on social media: The moderating role of status-seeking motivation.	1
Social connection, social exploration, social and platform constraints: The construction and validation of a social media user perception scale.	1