Media Psychology

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Media Psychology

Research topics include media uses, processes, and effects.

Media Psychology is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to publishing theoretically oriented, empirical research that is at the intersection of psychology and media/mediated communication.

01/08/2026

📢 New online first article!

Is narrative engagement really a single experience?

This meta-analysis synthesizes 52 studies involving 12,705 participants that used the Narrative Engagement Scale (NES) to examine the structure and psychological functions of narrative engagement.

The findings show that overall narrative engagement is positively associated with narrative-consistent attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors. Narrative engagement is also strongly related to transportation and identification, while being negatively associated with counterarguing.

Importantly, the four dimensions of narrative engagement show distinct patterns. Attention and understanding are most closely linked to reduced counterarguing, whereas emotional engagement and presence are more strongly associated with transportation and identification.

These findings suggest that narrative engagement is not a single psychological state, but a structured process involving distinct cognitive and affective components. What matters, then, may not simply be how deeply audiences engage with a story, but how they engage with it.

🔗 Read the article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2026.2705870

21/07/2026

📢 New online first article!

Why do studies on evening mobile media use and sleep often reach different conclusions?

This systematic review synthesizes findings from 76 studies and argues that the inconsistency in the literature is largely driven by methodological differences rather than substantive disagreement.

The review examines how conceptualization, measurement, and research design influence reported associations between evening mobile media use and sleep. While cross-sectional self-report studies frequently report negative effects, studies using objective, within-person, or fine-grained measures often produce mixed or null findings.

Rather than asking only whether mobile media affects sleep, this review highlights the importance of considering what is measured, how it is measured, and when it is measured.

🔗 Read the article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2026.2692472

06/07/2026

📣 Media Psychology, Volume 29, Issue 4 (2026) is now live!

From avatars in virtual mirrors to climate fiction, grief support, and political expression online – this issue spans a wide range of current questions in media psychology.
This issue includes research on:
• Reflective Realities: Exploring the Mechanisms of Mirror Dwelling in Social Virtual Reality
• The Impact of Concurrent and Sequential Media Multitasking on Performance: The Role of Task Relevance and Working Memory
• Conflicting Norms Around Mobile Media Dis/Connection and State Awareness: A Vignette Experiment
• Approaching Climate Change Through Fiction? The Effects of Coping Dispositions on Preferences for Climate Fiction Versus Non-Fiction
• Who's the Fairest of Them All: An Experiment Testing How Source, Outcome, and Process Description Affect Perceived Fairness in Hiring Decisions
• Sad Stories as Grief Support: Understanding the Processing and Well-Being Outcomes of Biographic Resonance with Meaningful Entertainment
• How Mediated Intergroup Contact Works: Exploring Mechanisms of Music and Language Learning Activities' Effects
• The Effects of Technological Affordances on Political Opinion Expression in Social Media: A Field Experiment

👉 Explore the full issue here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmep20/29/4

25/06/2026

🧐 📄 New Research Alert!

Can virtual influencers apologize their way out of a scandal – and do we even hold them morally accountable?

A study by Taenyun Kim, Chung Heon Lee, Yanqin Wu, Jungwoo Jang, Huisung Kwon, Hayeon Song, Jae-Gil Lee, Namkee Park, and Kwan M. Lee investigated whether moral responsibility attribution and trust dynamics differ between virtual and human influencers during endorsement scandals (N = 167).
Although participants viewed virtual influencers as having less mind and moral agency, they still attributed similar levels of blame and perceived wrongdoing to both virtual and human influencers. Interestingly, apologies were more effective in repairing trust when the endorser was a virtual influencer – especially when the virtual influencer itself apologized.
✨ The study offers new insights into how people morally evaluate virtual agents and highlights implications for brands using virtual influencers in advertising and crisis communication.
🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2026.2679123

16/06/2026

🔍 New Research Alert!

Why does misinformation stick around even after it's been corrected? 🤔

A new study by Dian van Huijstee, Ivar Vermeulen, Ellen Droog, Giulia Ranzini, and Peter Kerkhof offers a novel explanation: corrections tend to address the misinformation itself — but not the broader beliefs people have already inferred from it.

Across two preregistered experiments, participants read a fictional misinformation article, with some receiving a correction afterward. While corrections successfully reduced belief in the misinformation, they were far less effective at changing higher-order inferred beliefs — such as judgments about behavioral tendencies and personality traits of the subject.

✨ The findings suggest that misinformation's persuasive influence can persist even when its factual content is corrected — with important implications for fact-checkers, journalists, and policymakers.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2026.2668355

03/06/2026

📣 Exciting news for Media Psychology!

We are thrilled to welcome Nuri Kim as our new co-editor! Nuri Kim is an associate professor at KAIST's Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy in Korea. She is honored to join the editorial team of Media Psychology and looks forward to serving the community and supporting great research!
At the same time, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to Roselyn Lee-Won for her outstanding service as Co-Editor. Her dedication and contributions have been invaluable to the journal and the community. Thank you, Roselyn! 🙏

We're excited about this new chapter for Media Psychology! 🎉

22/04/2026

🧐 📄 New Research Alert! Do different types of political conflict affect how voters evaluate parties and trust politicians?

A study by Emma Sarah van der Goot, Michael Hameleers, Rens Vliegenthart, Jeroen de Ridder, and Sanne Kruikemeier examined how four dimensions of political conflict framing – (1) uncivil vs. civil, (2) with or without personal attacks, (3) deep vs. ordinary, and (4) normative vs. factual – affect party evaluations and trust in politicians. An online experiment was conducted in the Netherlands (N = 1,376).
The results show that uncivil conflict frames can negatively affect voters' evaluation of political parties, while factual conflict can fuel political distrust. However, most conflict types did not significantly affect voters' political attitudes.

✨ The findings suggest that most voters are resilient to conflict or may have become numb to such messages due to prolonged exposure in our current information ecology.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2509502

17/04/2026

🧐 📄 New Research Alert!
How does YouTube use affect young children's social skills?

A study by Min Jung Kim, Drew P. Cingel, and Yun Jung Choi examined how young children's YouTube viewing time and exposure to negative interactions in their favorite YouTube content relate to self-regulation, anxiety, and social skills. The study analyzed data from 341 South Korean parents of children aged 4–6.
The findings show that higher YouTube viewing time was associated with poorer self-regulation. Both viewing time and the number of negative interactions in favorite YouTube content were linked to higher anxiety. While viewing time was not directly related to social skills, negative interactions on YouTube were. Importantly, YouTube viewing time was indirectly related to social skills through self-regulation and anxiety, and exposure to negative interactions was associated with social skills through anxiety.

✨ The study highlights that both the amount and the nature of children's YouTube use matter for their social development.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2493188

02/04/2026

🧐 📄 New Research Alert!

How do media portrayals of racial and ethnic minorities shape our attitudes?
A meta-analysis by Muniba Saleem, Ian Hawkins, Stephen A. Rains, Dana Mastro, and Stewart Coles synthesized 60 studies on the effects of positive and negative media depictions of minority groups on outgroup evaluations.

The findings show that negative portrayals lead to unfavorable evaluations of minority groups, while positive portrayals produce the opposite effect. Both yield similar effect sizes, highlighting media's dual potential to shape intergroup attitudes. Importantly, these effects remained consistent regardless of the target group, media type, genre, or study design.

✨ The study underscores the robustness of media's influence on how we perceive racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2498374

09/03/2026

📣 Media Psychology, Volume 29, Issue 2 (2026) is now live!

We're excited to share the second issue of Media Psychology, featuring new research on how video gaming shapes gender beliefs in STEM, how adolescents navigate sexuality and self-presentation online, how different journalism formats affect audience trust and wellbeing and more!

👉 Explore the full issue here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmep20/29/2?nav=tocList

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