A growing number of studies have examined the psychological corollaries of using social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (often called social media). The interdisciplinary research area and conflicting evidence from primary studies complicate the assessment of current scholarly knowledge in this field of high public attention. We review meta-analytic evidence on three hotly debated topics regarding the effects of SNSs: well-being, academic achievement, and narcissism. Meta-analyses from different laboratories draw a rather equivocal picture. They show small associations in the r = .10 range between the intensity of SNS use and loneliness, self-esteem, life satisfaction, or self-reported depression, and somewhat stronger links to a thin body ideal and higher social capital. There is no indication for potential devastating effects of social media on school achievement; social media use and school grades are unrelated for adolescents. The meta-analyses revealed small to moderate associations between narcissism and SNS use. In sum, meta-analytic evidence is not in support of dramatic claims relating social media use to mischief.

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This meta-analysis builds on the broad and diverse research on the persuasive effects of narrative communication. Researchers have found that narratives are a particularly effective type of message that often has greater persuasive effects than non-narratives immediately after exposure. The present study meta-analyzes whether this greater persuasive power persists over time. Results are based on k1 = 14 studies with k2 = 51 effect sizes for immediate measurement (N = 2,834) and k2 = 66 effect sizes for delayed measurement (N = 2,459). They show that a single narrative message has a stronger persuasive impact than a non-narrative message on attitudes and intentions at immediate as well as on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors at delayed measurement. Both message types did not differently affect the participants’ beliefs. Meta-analytic structural equation modeling confirms transportation as a mediator of immediate persuasive effects.

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Social robots are becoming increasingly prevalent in everyday life and sex robots are a sub-category of especially high public interest and controversy. Starting from the concept of the otaku , a term from Japanese youth culture that describes secluded persons with a high affinity for fictional manga characters, we examine individual differences behind sex robot appeal ( anime and manga fandom , interest in Japanese culture , preference for indoor activities , shyness ). In an online-experiment, 261 participants read one out of three randomly assigned descriptions of future technologies ( sex robot , nursing robot , genetically modified organism ) and reported on their overall evaluation, eeriness, and contact/purchase intentions. Higher anime and manga fandom was associated with higher appeal for all three future technologies. For our male subsample, sex robots and GMOs stood out as shyness yielded a particularly strong relationship to contact/purchase intentions for these new technologies.

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