Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Understanding the Causal Impact of Social Media

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) and SBE's Accountable Institutions and Behavior programs. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government.

SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal.

Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Jay van Bavel at New York University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career researcher investigating the impact of social media on psychological outcomes.

Over 5 billion people use social media worldwide. Emerging evidence suggests that social media might have very different effects across the globe. With social media’s massive global usage, it is crucial to examine its psychological effects.

The current project seeks to understand the differential impact of social media in different locations.

The proposed project plans will involve a field experiment in which participants will be randomly assigned to reduce their social media usage for two weeks. The study will then assess how this temporary social media reduction impacts a number of variables, such as intergroup attitudes, well-being, and news knowledge. Then, testing a set of theoretical predictions, the project will then examine whether the effects of social media reduction are moderated by a number of variables, such as demographic variables and one’s online and offline social network composition.

This study will help address academic debates about the causal effects of social media and will also inform practical solutions for improving social media.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.