Contagion, Affirmation and Lies: The Psychology of Social Media

Views of how social media can affect people are often over-generalized (“its ruining our conversational skills!“ versus “its going to spark revolutions to rid the world of dictators!“), as is often the case with new technologies. The degree to which social media are embedded in our everyday lives makes this impulse all the more powerful. In the present talk, we’ll go over some of the most recent research from our group that examines how social media can have subtle but powerful effects on a range of psychological dynamics. The talk will cover how emotional contagion can take place over text-based communication, how social media can boost self-esteem and self-affirmation while degrading performance on a math test, and modify the way we lie (and tell the truth) to one another. The talk will include several activities designed to illuminate the key principles derived from the experimental findings that I will present, so be prepared to have your emotions infected, your sense of se