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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 May;80(5):1050-1064.
doi: 10.1002/jclp.23647. Epub 2024 Jan 29.

Seeing is believing: The effect of subtle communication in social media on viewers' beliefs about depression and anxiety symptom trajectories

Whitney M Whitted  1 , Matthew W Southward  2 , Kristen P Howard  1 , Samantha B Wick  1 , Daniel R Strunk  1 , Jennifer S Cheavens  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Seeing is believing: The effect of subtle communication in social media on viewers' beliefs about depression and anxiety symptom trajectories

Whitney M Whitted et al. J Clin Psychol. 2024 May.

Abstract

Objective: One barrier to treatment seeking, uptake, and engagement is the belief that nothing can be done to reduce symptoms. Given the widespread use of social media to disseminate information about important issues, including psychological health, we sought to understand how the influence of social media communication regarding mental health impacts viewers' beliefs about psychopathology recovery.

Method: Undergraduate participants from a large Midwestern university (N = 322) were randomized to view a series of Tweets characterizing psychopathology from a fixed mindset perspective, a growth mindset perspective, or, in the control condition, Tweets unrelated to psychopathology. Afterward, they completed a series of questionnaires designed to assess beliefs about recovery from depression and anxiety.

Results: Participants in the growth mindset condition endorsed less pessimistic beliefs about their ability (i.e., self-efficacy) to alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, and they believed these symptoms to be less stable and innate relative to those in the fixed mindset condition.

Conclusion: Social media communication that characterizes psychopathology from a growth mindset perspective may be a viable intervention for improving beliefs around mental health self-efficacy and the malleable nature of mental illness, particularly depression and anxiety. Clinicians may be able to use social media platforms to promote functional beliefs around mental illness.

Keywords: agency; anxiety; beliefs; depression; mindset.

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