A Multi-Modal Investigation of Reward-Based Mechanisms Underlying Excessive Social Media Usage

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For large parts of the population the use of social media, such as Facebookor Instagram, has become an elemental part of the daily routine. It is thusimportant that research investigates the impact that this technology has onour lives. Excessive social media usage is often referred to as an "addiction"in mass media outlets and public discussion. However, many psychologistshave warned about the perils of medicalising everyday behaviours. Thepresent PhD project will apply reward-based models derived from thesubstance addiction literature (Berridge & Robinson, 2016) to investigatewhether excessive social media use displays the neurocognitivecharacteristics of an addiction in some individuals. The project will utiliseestablished experimental paradigms to assess attentional bias to reward,approach motivation, and reward cue reactivity in response to social mediastimuli at multiple levels and through different measurement modalities (selfreports,implicit behavioural, psychophysiological and neural). Recentreviews also highlight the need for more qualitative measures of the motivesand functions underlying 'behavioural addictions' (Kardefelt-Winther et al.,2017). Thus, by integrating both experiential and implicit measures ofreward, the present project aims to establish subjective and objectiveincentives behind excessive social media usage. Not only will this help us toavoid over/under-pathologising daily life activities, the findings may alsohave substantial implications for the development of more efficaciousprevention and intervention strategies when those activities have harmfulconsequences.