Psychological Inoculation Against Problematic Social Media Use Among

Correspondence , Sameha Alshakhsi and Raian Ali, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar. Email: salshakhsi@hbku.edu.qa and raali2@hbku.edu.qa This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This research investigated whether an attitudinal inoculation intervention can build resistance against problematic social media use (PSMU) in adolescents. This experimental study assessed PSMU levels and attitudes toward PSMU before and after the intervention. The intervention utilized scenarios reflecting symptoms of PSMU, including preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, persistence, displacement, problem, deception, escape, and conflict.

Scenarios employed Cialdini's persuasion principles (reciprocity, liking, social proof, scarcity, authority, and commitment and consistency) and explained these principles to participants. The study included a control group, active inoculation group (participants identified countermeasures to PSMU scenarios), and passive inoculation group (countermeasures were provided). Participants were adolescents aged 11–15 years. A mixed ANCOVA was employed to test the intervention's impact on PSMU, post‐intervention attitude changes, and post‐inoculation talk (PIT) about excessive technology use. Results indicated a significant decrease in PSMU levels following active inoculation, particularly in withdrawal, persistence, displacement, and deception symptoms. The passive inoculation group showed a significant decrease in deception only.

No changes were observed in the control group. Regarding PIT, passive inoculation showed a marginally significant increase in negative PIT, whereas active inoculation saw a slight reduction in positive PIT. These findings, while exploratory, suggest attitudinal inoculation's potential for mitigating PSMU and warrant further research. Keywords: inoculation theory, persuasive design, PSMU, psychological inoculation, social media disorder This study investigated an inoculation‐based intervention to reduce problematic social media use (PSMU) in adolescents. Active inoculation, in which participants generated their own resistance strategies, significantly reduced PSMU symptoms, specifically withdrawal, persistence, displacement, and deception.

Passive inoculation, in which participants were provided with resistance strategies, reduced deception only. Changes in post‐inoculation talk about PSMU were also observed. Communications Psychology volume 3, Article number: 11 (2025) Cite this article The generation and distribution of hyper-partisan content on social media has gained millions of exposure across platforms, often allowing malevolent actors to influence and disrupt democracies. The spread of this content is facilitated by real users’ engaging with it on platforms. The current study tests the efficacy of an ‘inoculation’ intervention via six online survey-based experiments in the UK and US.

Experiments 1–3 (total N = 3276) found that the inoculation significantly reduced self-reported engagement with polarising stimuli. However, Experiments 4–6 (total N = 1878) found no effects on participants’ self-produced written text discussing the topic. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the literature on polarisation and previous interventions to reduce engagement with disinformation. In the last few decades, political polarisation has grown in numerous countries worldwide1,2,3. Of particular concern is the rise in affective polarisation, that is the disparity between feelings of warmth towards political in-groups versus political out-groups4. This concept of affective polarisation is rooted in Social Identity Theory5, which posits that humans are naturally inclined to categorise themselves and others into in-groups and out-groups, with greater salience of these identities encouraging...

However, rather than observing any great increase in in-group warmth, instead researchers have noted declining warmth towards political foes, or a growth in so called negative partisanship6. The rise in affective polarisation may in part be driven by our increased dependence upon social media for news gathering and the explosion in the number of hyper-partisan outlets (e.g. Breitbart) that create and spread hyper-partisan content on social media7,8,9,10. Much of this content could be classed as disinformation, the deliberate creation and distribution of false or manipulated information7,8,11. Creators of such content have varied objectives, including monetisation of the sharing of sensationalist or partisan news, but often there is an incentive to influence and reduce trust in democratic processes by increasing group... Indeed, exposure to partisan reporting that is critical of those out-groups has been found to decrease ratings of trust and liking of those groups, feeding into negative partisanship6,16.

The full scale of the problem has become clearer over the last decade. For example, investigations into the reach of foreign disinformation operations, including the internet research agency based in St Petersburg, have found hundreds of millions of exposures to disinforming and hyper-partisan posts on Twitter and... These are the references the publisher has listed as being connected to the article. Please check the article itself for the full list of references which may differ. Not all references are currently linkable within the Digital Library. These are possibly similar items as determined by title/reference text matching only.

Misinformation can have a profound detrimental impact on populations' wellbeing. In this large UK-based online experiment (n = 2430), we assessed the performance of false tag and inoculation interventions in protecting against different forms of misinformation ('variants'). While previous experiments have used perception- or intention-based outcome measures, we presented participants with real-life misinformation posts in a social media platform simulation and measured their engagement, a more ecologically valid approach. Our pre-registered mixed-effects models indicated that both interventions reduced engagement with misinformation, but inoculation was most effective. However, random differences analysis revealed that the protection conferred by inoculation differed across posts. Moderation analysis indicated that immunity provided by inoculation is robust to variation in individuals' cognitive reflection.

This study provides novel evidence on the general effectiveness of inoculation interventions over false tags, social media platforms' current approach. Given inoculation's effect heterogeneity, a concert of interventions will likely be required for future safeguarding efforts. The authors declare no competing interests. Example screen from the mock social media interface. This proprietary social media simulation… Violin plots of counts by outcome ( ‘Liking ’/ ‘Loving ’, ‘Reacting ’, and ‘Sharing ’), with average denoted…

Random differences (Arm 3 | Post), ‘reactions’. Posts varied in their deviations from… You have full access to this open access article To narratively review recent literature addressing interventions aimed at reducing detrimental mental health effects of problematic social media use (PSMU) among adolescents aged 10–20. The narrative review identified varying strengths and weaknesses of different types of interventions, which included therapy-based interventions (i.e., cognitive dissonance, self-compassion, mindfulness), media literacy, and social media limits. Moreover, features varied across interventions (i.e., duration, peer involvement, delivery format, setting).

Programs that teach adolescents cognitive or behavioral strategies to engage with social media in a healthy manner appear to be more effective at improving long-term well-being than interventions that completely restrict social media use... Tailoring interventions to the specific contextual factors salient to an individual or group may maximize the effectiveness and long-term impact of reducing PMSU and improving overall well-being. Future research should focus on longitudinal data to evaluate sustained intervention impacts. Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

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