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.

08/12/2025

🎉 Media Psychology, Volume 28, Issue 6 is now live!

We’re excited to share the final issue of Media Psychology for 2025, featuring six new research articles exploring influencer credibility, political polarization, online communication, self-presentation, and children’s media design.

This issue includes research on:
• From Live Streamer to Influencer: Credibility Effects of Authority, Interactivity, and Sponsorship
• Exploring the Paradox of Cross-Cutting Exposure and Affective Polarization: A Curvilinear Model Influenced by Political Ideology Strength
• Protective Self-Presentation for Audiences with Interdependent Self-Construals on Ephemeral Platforms: The Case of Humblebragging
• “I Usually Love Your Posts, but I didn’t Like This One … ” the Role of Masspersonal Factors and Valence of Follower Communication on Influencer Responses, Mood, and Job Satisfaction
• Designing children’s media: taxonomies as a scaffold for learning and attention
• Mitigating Perceived Polarization by Acknowledging Subjectivity: An Experimental Study of the Impact of Differently Phrasing Comments in Online News Discussions

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

Thank you to all of our authors, reviewers, and readers for making 2025 such a meaningful year for media psychology research!

08/12/2025

📈 New Research Alert!
Can we still trust what we see online—especially in the age of AI images?

A new replication study by Mario Haim, Philipp Knöpfle, and Johannes Breuer re-examined a well-known study on online image credibility. They tested both a direct replication (same image type, U.S. sample) and a conceptual replication using AI-generated fake images with a German sample.

✅ Results showed that 71% of the original findings replicated in the direct study, and 86% replicated in the conceptual study, suggesting that key conclusions about image credibility are surprisingly robust across contexts and technologies.

✨ The study also highlights the growing need for open science and transparency, especially as digital media environments rapidly change.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2595452

08/12/2025

New Research Alert!
Can movies about death actually help us cope with our own fear of it?

A new study by Anneke de Graaf and Enny Das explored how eudaimonic entertainment—films that focus on deep meaning and reflection—can help people transcend their fear of death.

Results show that this effect depends on empathy: when viewers empathized with a character facing death, they showed greater acceptance of mortality. However, simply identifying with or projecting onto the character wasn’t enough—true empathy made the difference.

✨ The study suggests that meaningful movies can help people confront and make peace with existential fears through emotional connection.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2592075

24/11/2025

📢 New Research Alert!
Can feminist advertising (femvertising) really make a difference beyond promoting products?

A new study by Hikari Abe-Džujka and Tobias Dienlin explored how femvertising—ads designed to empower and support women—affects viewers’ well-being, empowerment, and purchase behavior.

Findings show that femvertising significantly boosts empowerment and positive emotions, leading to a slight increase in purchase likelihood. However, it didn’t notably change brand image.

✨ In short: empowering ads can truly uplift audiences—while giving brands a small but meaningful edge.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2591065

09/11/2025

🧠 New Research Alert!
What’s happening in the brain when people engage in cyberbullying—and how do personal values and family relationships shape this behavior?

A new study by Yulong Yin, Haijia Shi, Zheqing Fu, Xu Li, Xiao Cai, Mingkun Ouyang, and Pengcheng Wang used resting-state EEG to explore the neural basis of cyberbullying. Results showed that cyberbullying perpetration is linked to changes in α-band brain activity, which reflects cognitive control.

✨ The study also found that materialism partly mediates this relationship — people with stronger materialistic values are more prone to cyberbullying. However, paternal acceptance (feeling accepted by one’s father) moderated this effect, reducing the likelihood of such behavior.

These findings reveal how brain activity, personal values, and family support interact to shape online aggression, offering fresh insights for cyberbullying prevention and intervention.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2583161

31/10/2025

🧠 New Research Alert!
Why do some messages feel harder to process than others?

A new study explored how cognitive load (mental effort) and processing fluency (how smoothly information is understood) affect how people remember and are persuaded by messages—especially in health communication.

Findings show that when language was harder to process, people remembered information better if auditory cues helped guide attention. This means that even when content feels challenging, the right cues can enhance memory and persuasion.

✨ The study reveals how our brains juggle effort and ease when making sense of complex messages.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2576679

E. Riggs C. Shulman Huskey Lynch T. Fisher

31/10/2025

🎮 New Research Alert!
How do repeated moral choices in video games affect players’ feelings of guilt and morality?

A new study explored how replaying games and making different moral decisions can change players’ emotions and moral evaluations. The results showed that players who first made an immoral choice and later made a moral one felt less guilt and saw their actions more positively — a process called moral cleansing.

✨ Interestingly, the reverse pattern (moral → immoral) didn’t cause the same emotional response, suggesting that repeated gameplay can shape how players justify or balance their moral choices over time.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2573470
E. Ellithorpe . Marie Devlin

15/10/2025

📰 New Research Alert!
Can a small word change really shape how we read the news? 🤔

A new study found that using gender-inclusive language (GIL) in news headlines affects what people click on and how they feel about it.
✅ People who support GIL are more likely to read those articles.
🚫 Those against it tend to avoid them.
👩‍💼 Men also felt more excluded when reading gender-inclusive news.

💬 Even small language choices can change how audiences engage with media!

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2570293

By Annabell Halfmann, Jonathan Schwenzer & Teresa K. Naab

26/09/2025

📢 New Research Alert!
Being a fan can bring joy and connection—but what about the dark side of fandom?

A new cross-cultural study with fans in China and Germany found that strong parasocial relationships with celebrities can increase fans’ sense of belonging, but also lead to conflict and aggression toward other fandoms. Chinese fans in particular showed higher levels of in-group loyalty and hostility toward out-groups compared to German fans.

✨ These findings highlight how fandom and parasocial bonds can both strengthen identity and fuel tensions between groups, showing the complex impact of digital fan culture today.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2562009

Forner Lutz Zheng -Philipp Stein

22/09/2025

📢 New Research Alert!
Can we build the same kind of emotional bonds with virtual influencers as with human ones?

A new study followed young adults over four weeks and found that parasocial relationships (one-sided emotional bonds) with both human and AI-created virtual influencers actually developed in very similar ways. People’s emotional connection grew stronger over time for both, and even the pain of “parasocial breakups” was about the same.

✨ This means virtual influencers can foster bonds comparable to human influencers, showing their real potential as communicators.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2558029

L. Breves M. C. van Berlo

11/09/2025

🔊 New Research Alert! A new study finds that sad stories can offer more than just simple entertainment and actually serve as a form of grief support. 📖💔

Media content that shows death or loss can support people who are grieving by making them feel empathy, reflect on their own experiences, and find meaning. Most importantly, these stories remind people that they are not alone.

And instead of only making us sad, they can also help with emotional healing, self-reflection, and building empathy.

📄 Article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2548509 🔍
Take a look if you’re interested!

14/04/2025

📢 New article! What happens when a message gets deleted before you can read it? 🧐📱

Sarah Lutz and Christiane Büttner examined the psychological impact of delete notifications in messenger apps. Their study found that being out of the loop due to deleted messages can feel just as socially excluding as being ignored—threatening feelings of belonging and self-esteem. Surprisingly, fear of missing out didn’t moderate these effects.

🔍 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2025.2459292

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