How are Pre-Existing Beliefs Influencing Social Media Time-Reduction Studies?

With the recent uprise in technology development, the concern for social media use is evermore increasing. Research has aimed to show that social media has a negative impact on well-being, however results from social media time-reduction studies remain divided. In this experimental study, we test whether pre-existing beliefs and experimental demand characteristics explain people’s views about social media after receiving positively- or negatively-slanted information. We hypothesize that people assigned to the condition emphasizing the negatives of social media will be more willing to participate in a time-reduction study and will be more likely to endorse a negative view of social media as compared to people assigned to the condition emphasizing the positives of social media. We also hypothesize that the difference between conditions will be stronger for those who have stronger pre-existing beliefs about social media’s harms.