The fading affect bias is disrupted by false memories in two diary studies of social media events

Gibbons, Jeffrey A.; Dunlap, Spencer; Friedmann, Emma D.; Dayton, Clare; Rocha, Gabriela

doi:10.1002/acp.3922

Cited by 6 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 64 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Because the number of people interacting on social media is higher, the effect of the fading affect bias is expected to be faster and stronger than personally shared events (Eliseev and Marsh 2021). Interestingly, Gibbons et al (2022) found that fading effect bias is less pronounced in events shared on social media. In other words, a high rate of negative details of events recalled if the event is shared on social media (Choi andToma 2014, Gibbons et al 2017).…”

Section: The Emotional Content Of Memories Shared On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The direct effect of social media on autobiographical memory is well-documented. Some studies examined the features of events recorded or shared (Comblain et al 2000, D'argembeau and van der Linden 2006, Gibbons et al 2022) while others tested the motivations (or functions) for sharing personal events on social media (Bluck and Alea 2002, Blagow and Singer 2004, Alea et al 2019. Social media posts are not independent of the sharer's self.…”

Section: Direct Effects Of Social Media Context On Autobiographical M...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the tendency to share positive memories is likely to increase when a high number of people are interacted with (Lin et al 2014). Negative events or details, on the other hand, are shared on social media less often (Gibbons et al 2022). Previous studies consistently show that the emotions related to shared positive memories remain vivid in the long term (Lambert et al 2013, Choi and Toma 2014, Wang et al 2015.…”

Section: The Emotional Content Of Memories Shared On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Findings on the effect of sharing negative memories are more complex. A group of studies showed that negative emotions about shared events are less likely to fade over time (Gibbons et al 2017(Gibbons et al , 2022. Another set of studies, on the other hand, suggested that sharing negative events lead emotions to fade more quickly than emotion about nonshared events (Skowronski et al 2004).…”

Section: The Emotional Content Of Memories Shared On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Remembering in the Digital World: Autobiographical Memory in Social Media

Tasdemir-Ozdes

Karaman

2023

Psikiyatride Güncel Yaklaşımlar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of social media continues to increase in modern cultures in recent years. This new context leads to creating a virtual self, which somewhat differs from the real self. Further, social relations are set and maintained predominantly in this new context. There is no doubt that social media does not only affect individuals' social relations but also their cognitive skills by pulling them into new situations that they are unfamiliar with. In this new context, content coded in social media can be remembered in real life, and content coded in real life can be remembered in social media. This new context, where mostly real-life stories are shared, is likely to strongly affect the autobiographical memory processes of individuals. Past research suggests that social media affects autobiographical memory processes both directly (phenomenological characteristics, functions) and indirectly through cognitive processes (eg, attention, working memory, transitive memory). Studies about its indirect effects indicate that people with limited attention and working memory capacity have difficulty processing the high number of stimuli offered by social media. Given that the long-term memory capacity is not limited, it is plausible to expect that some of the contents are encoded into the memory; however, problems may occur in the storage and retrieval processes. Studies about the direct effect of social media show that the phenomenological characteristics (number of details, accuracy, emotional content) and functions (self, social, directing, therapeutic) of events experienced or shared on social media differ from real-life events. This theoretical review discusses the effects of social media use on cognitive processes related to memory processes and more specifically on the phenomenological and functional characteristics of autobiographical memory. To recognize and prevent potential psychological issues that may emerge in relation to this new setting, it appears essential to comprehend how social media affects autobiographical memory, which is essential for self-perception.

show abstract

Section: The Emotional Content Of Memories Shared On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Direct Effects Of Social Media Context On Autobiographical M...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Emotional Content Of Memories Shared On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Emotional Content Of Memories Shared On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Remembering in the Digital World: Autobiographical Memory in Social Media

Tasdemir-Ozdes

Karaman

2023

Psikiyatride Güncel Yaklaşımlar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Healthy and unhealthy variables measure emotional, mental, and physiological constructs that are positive, robust, and wholesome or unpleasant, undesirable, and unwanted, respectively, and these terms have been used in recent FAB studies (e.g., Gibbons & Bouldin, 2019;Gibbons, Dunlap, et al, 2022).…”

Section: Fading Affect Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coronaphobia flips the emotional world upside down: Unhealthy variables positively predict the fading affect bias at high physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety

Gibbons,

Harris,

Friedmann

et al. 2023

Applied Cognitive Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The fading affect bias (FAB) refers to the faster fading of unpleasant affect than pleasant affect. The present study investigated various healthy and unhealthy variables as predictors of the FAB across physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety (PSCA) as well as across events involving and not involving COVID‐19. The data were collected in the heart of the pandemic from April 18, 2020 to January 23, 2021. As expected, social distancing, grit, positive positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS), and rehearsals positively predicted the FAB, whereas negative PANAS, depression, generalized anxiety, and stress negatively predicted the FAB. These results supported the mobilization‐minimization hypothesis, self‐enhancement theories, and the broaden and build theory. Interestingly, PSCA moderated the relations of several variables, such that grit, hypochondria, neuroticism, average daily hours thinking and talking about COVID‐19, negative PANAS, and anxiety predicted the FAB in the expected ways at low PSCA, but all the variables, except negative PANAS and anxiety, positively predicted the FAB at high PSCA. The negative relations between FAB and both negative PANAS and anxiety diminished from low to medium PSCA, and those negative relations remained small at high PSCA. Rehearsal ratings did not mediate the 3‐way interactions. These results emphasize the dramatic effect on emotion regulation, as measured by the FAB, produced by the COVID‐19 pandemic.

show abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted the healthy fading of emotions in autobiographical memory mediated via in‐person social disclosures

Muir,

Brown

2023

Applied Cognitive Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We explore the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom upon the fading affect bias in autobiographical memory, which describes the greater fading of negative emotional intensity over time compared to positive. Across two studies we show that the magnitude of the FAB is smaller for pandemic‐related events compared to pandemic‐unrelated events. The FAB is thought to represent the result of healthy coping processes operating on autobiographical memory and our results indicate that these processes were disrupted, to a certain extent, by the pandemic. These effects were mediated by frequent in‐person social disclosures of pleasant pandemic‐unrelated events, which was, in turn, associated with less fading of positive affect. Further, the FAB for both pandemic‐related and unrelated events was mediated by disclosures via social media. Together, these results highlight the potential effectiveness of using various modes of communication to facilitate emotional regulation processes in autobiographical memory.

show abstract

The fading affect bias is disrupted by false memories in two diary studies of social media events

Cited by 6 publications

References 64 publications

Remembering in the Digital World: Autobiographical Memory in Social Media

Remembering in the Digital World: Autobiographical Memory in Social Media

Coronaphobia flips the emotional world upside down: Unhealthy variables positively predict the fading affect bias at high physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety

The COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted the healthy fading of emotions in autobiographical memory mediated via in‐person social disclosures

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About