A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Social Media Use and Empathy in Adolescence

Abstract

With social media use on the rise, research to understand the links between social media use and adolescent social functioning, including empathy-a key skill for building peer relationships-is burgeoning. Some researchers have found that social media use offers opportunities to connect and empathize (i.e., augmentation hypothesis), while others argue it displaces face-to-face interactions and opportunities to empathize (i.e., social displacement hypothesis). This review and meta-analysis summarizes research on associations between social media use and cognitive and affective empathy in adolescence. Fifteen articles were included in the review, thirteen of which were in the meta-analysis (N = 10,015 participants across studies; mean age = 16.75 years). There was a significant, albeit small, association between greater social media use and higher total empathy (r = 0.057). Social media use was not significantly associated with affective or cognitive separately, though several factors moderated the size of the associations for cognitive empathy. Associations between social media use and cognitive empathy were stronger for studies with younger sample mean ages, higher study quality ratings, and measures of frequency rather than duration of social media use. While these findings slightly favor the augmentation hypothesis, it is possible that social media use could lead to better outcomes for some children and worse outcomes for others, based on factors such as why social media is being used (e.g., connect with others, make social comparisons) and individual differences (e.g., shyness, sociability). Future research may use more detailed measures of social media use, experimental designs, and models of change in these associations across adolescence.

Keywords: adolescence; affective empathy; cognitive empathy; social media.