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Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’

Phil Reed Orcid Logo, Will Haas, WILLIAM HAAS

Psychological Reports, Start page: 003329412311710

Swansea University Authors: Phil Reed Orcid Logo, WILLIAM HAAS

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/00332941231171034

Abstract

It has been suggested that avoiding choice represents an anxiety-avoidance strategy, which has not been investigated in the context of social media. To this end, the current study explored the relationship between social media dependency and a preference for ‘forced’ choice, along with its associati...

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Published in: Psychological Reports
ISSN: 0033-2941 1558-691X
Published: SAGE Publications
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63082
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spelling v2 63082 2023-04-04 Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’ 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83 0000-0002-8157-0747 Phil Reed Phil Reed true false 6bd6c06884ffa57febec020f9d658a8d WILLIAM HAAS WILLIAM HAAS true false 2023-04-04 HPS It has been suggested that avoiding choice represents an anxiety-avoidance strategy, which has not been investigated in the context of social media. To this end, the current study explored the relationship between social media dependency and a preference for ‘forced’ choice, along with its association with anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and experiential avoidance. The sample comprised 151 volunteer participants (18–32 years) who completed a psychometric test battery, including: the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale; Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory; Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale; and Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire. They also undertook a behavioural assessment based on a paradigm developed for pigeons, in which they selected either a situation with a free choice of alternatives, and one with a forced choice. Intolerance of uncertainty mediated the relationship between social media dependency and anxiety. In addition, those with lower social media dependency preferred being able to choose the contingency they worked on, while those with higher scores exhibited no such preference. This partly confirmed that social media dependency is associated with a reduced preference for freedom, but does not suggest social media dependency actively produced a preference for a lack of freedom. The speed of decision making was also faster in those with high social media dependency scores, in line with previous findings that they show higher levels of impulsive behaviours. The results suggest that anxiety and social media dependency are related, and fear of uncertainty and is linked with digital experiential avoidance. Journal Article Psychological Reports 0 003329412311710 SAGE Publications 0033-2941 1558-691X Freedom of choice, social media dependency, anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, experiential avoidance, schedule of reinforcement 0 0 0 0001-01-01 10.1177/00332941231171034 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00332941231171034 COLLEGE NANME Psychology COLLEGE CODE HPS Swansea University Not Required 2024-01-08T15:21:00.1479140 2023-04-04T18:31:02.7566057 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Phil Reed 0000-0002-8157-0747 1 Will Haas 2 WILLIAM HAAS 3 63082__27808__51e1ab995c0b46e99b88c746e6517f54.pdf 63082 VoR.pdf 2023-06-12T15:00:10.8177049 Output 752135 application/pdf Version of Record true Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
spellingShingle Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
Phil Reed
WILLIAM HAAS
title_short Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
title_full Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
title_fullStr Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
title_full_unstemmed Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
title_sort Social Media Use as an Impulsive ‘Escape From Freedom’
author_id_str_mv 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83
6bd6c06884ffa57febec020f9d658a8d
author_id_fullname_str_mv 100599ab189b514fdf99f9b4cb477a83_***_Phil Reed
6bd6c06884ffa57febec020f9d658a8d_***_WILLIAM HAAS
author Phil Reed
WILLIAM HAAS
author2 Phil Reed
Will Haas
WILLIAM HAAS
format Journal article
container_title Psychological Reports
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container_start_page 003329412311710
institution Swansea University
issn 0033-2941
1558-691X
doi_str_mv 10.1177/00332941231171034
publisher SAGE Publications
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00332941231171034
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description It has been suggested that avoiding choice represents an anxiety-avoidance strategy, which has not been investigated in the context of social media. To this end, the current study explored the relationship between social media dependency and a preference for ‘forced’ choice, along with its association with anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and experiential avoidance. The sample comprised 151 volunteer participants (18–32 years) who completed a psychometric test battery, including: the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale; Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory; Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale; and Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire. They also undertook a behavioural assessment based on a paradigm developed for pigeons, in which they selected either a situation with a free choice of alternatives, and one with a forced choice. Intolerance of uncertainty mediated the relationship between social media dependency and anxiety. In addition, those with lower social media dependency preferred being able to choose the contingency they worked on, while those with higher scores exhibited no such preference. This partly confirmed that social media dependency is associated with a reduced preference for freedom, but does not suggest social media dependency actively produced a preference for a lack of freedom. The speed of decision making was also faster in those with high social media dependency scores, in line with previous findings that they show higher levels of impulsive behaviours. The results suggest that anxiety and social media dependency are related, and fear of uncertainty and is linked with digital experiential avoidance.
published_date 0001-01-01T15:21:01Z
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