Psychology of Popular Media

Papers
(The TQCC of Psychology of Popular Media is 3. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-04-01 to 2025-04-01.)
ArticleCitations
The relationships among fanship, self-esteem, and depression of seventh-grade girls: Differences according to pubertal timing.39
Rolling minds: A conversational media to promote intergroup contact by countering racial misinformation through socioanalytic processing in adolescence.31
Supplemental Material for Strange New Worlds: Social Content in Popular Star Trek Fanfiction Versus Commercial Novels31
Supplemental Material for Who Finds Media Violence Funny? Testing the Effects of Media Violence Exposure and Dark Personality Traits29
Supplemental Material for Development and Validation of the Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale27
Supplemental Material for Crime in Your Area: Use of Neighborhood Apps Is Associated With Inaccurate Perceptions of Higher Local Crime Rates25
Supplemental Material for “But They Don’t Look Like Someone With an Eating Disorder”: A Content Analysis of Representation in TV and Film Portrayals of Characters With Eating Disorders24
Supplemental Material for Maternal Technology Distraction and Its Associations With Stress and Parenting During the COVID-19 Pandemic24
Supplemental Material for Sensing the Media Character: The Experience of Parasocial Interaction, But Not Identification, as a Real Physical Occurrence23
Binge-watching to feel better: Mental health gratifications sought and obtained through binge-watching.22
Supplemental Material for The Effects of Awe-Inspiring Nature Videos on Connectedness to Nature and Proenvironmental Intentions20
Supplemental Material for The Effect of Short-Form Video Usage on Self-Expansion20
Supplemental Material for Dysregulated Gaming and Emotion Regulation Flexibility19
What babies, infants, and toddlers hear on Fox/Disney BabyTV: An exploratory study.18
“Ur a freakin goddess!”: Examining appearance commentary on Instagram.17
Twitch in the time of quarantine: The role of engagement in needs fulfillment.17
Strange new worlds: Social content in popular Star Trek fanfiction versus commercial novels.15
Mimetic representations of the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of objectification, anchoring, and identification processes in coronavirus memes.15
The psychology of likes: Relevance of feedback on Instagram and relationship to self-esteem and social status.13
Sexism and racism negatively predict preference for diverse characters in Star Wars fans.13
Predicting the use of YouTube and content exposure among 10–12-year-old children: Dispositional, developmental, and social factors.13
Deconstructing age-related messages in the Billboard Hot 100.13
Recognizing the similarities and appreciating the differences? Content choices and perceived (dis)similarity with TV show characters among youth.12
Inspired to mask up: The effect of uplifting media messages on attitudes about wearing face masks among Democrats and Republicans.12
The role of different characters on story-consistent attitudes and self-reported mental health-related behavior change among viewers of 13 Reasons Why.11
Psychology of Popular Media is, well, popular.11
Situational and personal determinants of adolescents’ attitudes toward online celebrity bashing.10
Binging on the heartbreak: The effect of binge-watching on narrative engagement and parasocial breakups.10
South African university students’ use of mental health content on Instagram.9
Narrative persuasion across the aisle: Mechanisms of engagement with discordant characters.9
The role of different screen media devices, child dysregulation, and parent screen media use in children’s self-regulation.9
Random app of kindness: Evaluating the potential of a smartphone intervention to impact adolescents’ empathy, prosocial behavior, and aggression.9
Other-focus versus self-focus: The power of self-transcendent TV shows.9
Intergroup contact with a virtual refugee: Reducing prejudice through a cooperative game.9
Activism through fandom for the Black Lives Matter movement.8
Interactive decision-making in entertainment movies: A mixed-methods approach.8
From inglorious basterds, aliens, and hobbits: The structure of fictional film genre preferences and its relationship with time perspective and individual time span orientation.8
Select your character: Individual needs and avatar choice.8
Personal comedy that resonates? Gun control, Uvalde, and identification with Jimmy Kimmel.8
Online communities and identity: Experiences of LGBTQIA+ emerging adults engaging with LGBTQIA+ online content during the COVID-19 pandemic.8
Qualitative and quantitative investigations of Office fans’ connections with fictional and celebrity couples: Identification, parasocial relationships, and beyond.7
From filters to body positivity: Opposing social media messages and adolescent body image.7
Better than scrolling: Digital detox in the search for the ideal self.7
Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between young student women’s experiences of everyday sexual harassment on social media and self-objectification, body shame, and personal safety anxiety7
Alone and online: Understanding the relationships between social media, solitude, and psychological adjustment.7
Self-simming while Black: Examining a petition to improve black representation in Sims 4.7
Time travels on Instagram: A longitudinal investigation of parasocial interaction with a historical person and the impact on followers’ morality.7
Patterns of child and adolescent digital media use: Associations with school support, engagement, and cybervictimization.7
Ariel, Aurora, or Anna? Disney princess body size as a predictor of body esteem and gendered play in early childhood.6
How does on-demand streaming technology promote binge-watching? An exploration and classification of streaming platform design features.6
Supplemental Material for Qualitative and Quantitative Investigations of Office Fans’ Connections With Fictional and Celebrity Couples: Identification, Parasocial Relationships, and Beyond6
Perceptions of health changes and support for self-limiting social media use among young adults in Finland—A qualitative study.6
Using comics and tweets to raise awareness about gender biases in STEM.6
Pressure, preoccupation, and porn: The relationship between internet pornography, gendered attitudes, and sexual coercion in young adults.6
Disappearing in the age of hypervisibility: Definition, context, and perceived psychological consequences of social media ghosting.6
What does the Cat in the Hat know about that? An analysis of the educational and unrealistic content of children’s narrative science media.6
Supplemental Material for Navigating a Muscular and Sexualized Instagram Feed: An Experimental Study Examining How Instagram Affects Both Heterosexual and Nonheterosexual Men’s Body Image5
Young love on the big screen: A content analysis of romantic ideals, challenges, hookups, and long-term relationships in teen romantic drama movies.5
Reducing social media use improves appearance and weight esteem in youth with emotional distress.5
Supplemental Material for Parasocial Relationships as Functional Social Alternatives During Pandemic-Induced Social Distancing5
Supplemental Material for Postexposure Engagement With More and Less Eudaimonic Films: 10-Year Patterns of Response and the Role of Parasocial Relationship and Retrospective Imaginative Involvement5
Supplemental Material for Other-Focus Versus Self-Focus: The Power of Self-Transcendent TV Shows5
Supplemental Material for Subtle Threat Cues in Marketing Horror and Children’s Entertainment5
Me, myself, and my avatar: Self-discrepancy, embodiment, and narrative involvement in gaming experiences.5
The effect of TikTok body neutrality content on young women’s self-compassion.5
A content analysis method for coding movie content using movie trailers.5
Supplemental Material for The Role of Different Screen Media Devices, Child Dysregulation, and Parent Screen Media Use in Children’s Self-Regulation5
Supplemental Material for Problematic Video Gaming Is Associated With Poor Sleep Quality, Diet Quality, and Personal Hygiene5
Correction to “limiting social media use decreases depression, anxiety, and fear of missing out in youth with emotional distress: A randomized controlled trial” by Davis and Goldfield (2024).5
Following up on #fitspiration: A comparative content analysis and thematic analysis of social media content aiming to inspire fitness from 2014 and 2021.5
How anthropomorphic animal representations in nature documentaries are related to entertainment experience and persuasive effects.5
Do social media experiments prove a link with mental health: A methodological and meta-analytic review.5
Exploring the motives for watching horror movies: A replication and extension.5
Supplemental Material for The Big Five and Beyond: Which Personality Traits Do Predict Movie and Reading Preferences?5
Supplemental Material for “To Be Yourself or Your Selfies, That Is the Question”: The Moderation Role of Gender, Nationality, and Privacy Settings in the Relationship Between Selfie-Engagement and Bod5
Correction to “online communities and identity: Experiences of LGBTQIA+ emerging adults engaging with LGBTQIA+ online content during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Penfold et al. (2024).5
Unsatisfied needs as a predictor of obsessive passion for videogame play.4
How sex is referenced in Netflix original, adolescent-directed series: A content analysis of subtitles.4
Exploring the association between Twitch use and well-being.4
Coping with COVID-19 stress: The role of media consumption in emotion- and problem-focused coping.4
Longitudinal dynamics of self-presentation in face-to-face and messenger-based communication.4
Looking to the stars: Validating the existence of para-couple relationships among emerging adults.4
The costs of sexualization: Examining viewers’ perceptions of sexualized profile owners in online dating.4
Further tests of the media violence–aggression link: Replication and extension of the 7 Nations Project with multiple Latinx samples.4
Character immersion in video games as a form of acting.4
That’s disgusting! Why disgust increases enjoyment of crime dramas.4
“Using Comics and tweets to raise awareness about gender biases in STEM.” Correction to Freedman, Green, Kaufman, and Flanagan (2022).4
Extensions of the proteus effect on intergroup aggression in the real world.4
Not all media multitasking is the same: The frequency of media multitasking depends on cognitive and affective characteristics of media combinations.4
Linking adolescents’ exposure to and identification with reality TV to materialism, narcissism, and entitlement.4
Loving Shuang Ju: Chinese audiences’ entertainment experience of retribution narratives.4
“You have to know how to live with it without getting to the addiction part”: British young adult experiences of smartphone overreliance and disconnectivity.4
Black lives matter, Black stories matter, Black voices matter: Black Lives Matter protests, COVID-19, and streaming services.4
Is that a real woman? Reality TV viewing and black viewers’ beliefs about femininity.4
Social comparison and state–trait dynamics: Viewing image-conscious Instagram accounts affects college students’ mood and anxiety.3
The portrayal of mental illness in popular children's programs on Netflix: A content and thematic analysis.3
Supplemental Material for Social Media Reduction or Abstinence Interventions Are Providing Mental Health Benefits—Reanalysis of a Published Meta-Analysis3
Wine mom culture: Investigating social media influence on mothers’ alcohol norms.3
Fear of missing out and compulsive social media use as mediators between OCD symptoms and social media fatigue.3
Television awards and integrative complexity: A preliminary linguistic examination.3
The association between social media use and body dissatisfaction: Exploring a potential mechanism of action in an experimental design.3
Problematic smartphone use versus “technoference”: Examining their unique predictive power on relational and life satisfaction.3
Self-compassion and women's experience of social media content portraying body positivity and appearance ideals.3
Supplemental Material for Are Fatigued Users Fleeing Social Media? A Three-Level Meta-Analysis on the Association Between Social Media Fatigue and Social Media Use3
Social media usage is associated with lower knowledge about anxiety and indiscriminate use of anxiety coping strategies.3
Perceptions of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploration.3
Playing with privilege: Examining demographics in choosing player-characters in video games.3
The effects of awe-inspiring nature videos on connectedness to nature and proenvironmental intentions.3
Influences of online computer-mediated activities on the development of aggressive behavior: A systematic literature review comparing Eurasian regions.3
An unsafe space: Sexualization, dehumanization, and the harassment of women on social media.3
Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution: How engagement, enjoyment, and FoMO predict avoidance of spoilers.3
A moderated mediation model of the relationship between passive social network usages and life satisfaction.3
Can the social network bridge social distancing? Social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.3
Black college students navigating digital environments: A qualitative analysis of peer racial socialization.3
Parasocial relationships as functional social alternatives during pandemic-induced social distancing.3
Navigating the social landscape of Instagram: Exploring the experiences, motivations, and perceptions of eating disorder recovery content creators.3
The role of envy in linking active and passive social media use to memory functioning.3
Rating heroes, antiheroes, and villains: Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism predict admiration for and perceived similarity to morally questionable characters.3
Associations between intentions for affective social media content choices and depressive symptoms in adolescence: A cross-sectional investigation of media response styles as moderators.3
The impacts of cinematic portrayal of human virtues.3
Supplemental Material for Random App of Kindness: Evaluating the Potential of a Smartphone Intervention to Impact Adolescents’ Empathy, Prosocial Behavior, and Aggression3
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