Social desirability response bias confounds the effect of gender on social media addiction

This study examined how social desirability responses confound the relationship between gender and social media addiction. A total of 496 college student social media users (females = 310, 62.5%, mean age = 20.15, SD = 1.26) completed an online questionnaire on Social Media Addiction and Social Desirability. Mediation analysis revealed that females were at higher risk for social media addiction. On the other hand, the indirect effect of gender on social media addiction via social desirability is associated with lower social media addiction, which suggests that social desirability had a suppression effect on social media addiction associated with gender. ANOVA results showed that females reported higher social media addiction scores than males in the high social desirability group; in the low group, gender differences were insignificant. This study’s unique contribution is to suggest that females are at higher risk than males for developing addictive social media behaviors. Based on this finding, student social media safety interventions should be gender sensitive to the social desirability effect on females who may hide their true addiction as a result.