I belong but I’m still sad: Reminders of Facebook increase feelings of belonging but do not facilitate coping with sadness

One way in which people may cope with sadness is to seek positive social contact. We examined whether subtle reminders of Facebook increase positive mood and thus attenuate the interest in social activities that is typically enhanced by sad mood induction. Participants watched either a loss-related...

Verfasser: Knausenberger, Judith
Echterhoff, Gerald
FB/Einrichtung:FB 07: Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft
Dokumenttypen:Artikel
Medientypen:Text
Erscheinungsdatum:2018
Publikation in MIAMI:25.07.2019
Datum der letzten Änderung:25.07.2019
Angaben zur Ausgabe:[Electronic ed.]
Quelle:PLoS ONE 13 (2018) 12, e0209889, 1-12
Fachgebiet (DDC):150: Psychologie
Lizenz:CC BY 4.0
Sprache:English
Förderung:Finanziert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2018 der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) und der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU Münster).
Format:PDF-Dokument
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-84129588925
Weitere Identifikatoren:DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/TNJW4
Permalink:https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-84129588925
Onlinezugriff:artikel_knausenberger_2018.pdf

One way in which people may cope with sadness is to seek positive social contact. We examined whether subtle reminders of Facebook increase positive mood and thus attenuate the interest in social activities that is typically enhanced by sad mood induction. Participants watched either a loss-related sad or neutral video and were afterwards presented with either a Facebook, positive (sun) or neutral (Word) icon. We then examined their mood and their desire to engage in social activities as well as their feeling of belonging. The presentation of the Facebook icon increased feelings of belonging, but it did not influence participants’ other responses to the sad video. Participants reported more negative mood and a greater desire to engage in social activities after the sad (vs. control) video regardless of the icon condition. The results suggest that the activation of thoughts about Facebook can enhance users’ feeling of belonging; however, this effect might not be sufficient to facilitate coping with loss-related sadness.