How do most people work when connected to Facebook and are in bad mood? According to a recent survey, they are looking for friends who are in an even worse situation than them.
"In general, most of us are looking for something positive on social networking sites," says study co-author Dr. Benjamin Johnson, Assistant Professor at the VU University of Amsterdam. "But when you feel vulnerable, you will look for friends on Facebook who have had a bad day or who are not so good at presenting themselves positively, just to make yourself feel better."
For their study, the researchers tested 168 college students, who had to answer questions indicating how they were feeling, to determine whether they were in a good or bad mood. Students could then use a fake webσελίδα social networking site called SocialLink.
Students in this social network could find profiles that are designed to look appealing or unattractive, successful or unsuccessful. There was no difference in the content of each profile's posts.
“So the only real difference between the profiles was the ratings της επιτυχίας της σταδιοδρομίας και της ελκυστικότητας καθοριζόταν διάφορα σύμβολα όπως το δολάριο και οι καρδιές”αναφέρει ο Johnson
Malware survey participants had to choose which of these profiles they would like to click. Their decision was based in part on their moods.
What did the researchers discover? In general, students spent the most time on the profiles of people who appeared to be successful and had attractive profiles. But when the researchers compared the Results with those of students who were in a bad mood, they found that the moody students spent more time on the less attractive profiles of the less successful people.
“If you need a self-esteem boost, you'll look for people who are worse off than you are," says the co-author Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, professor of communication at Ohio State University.
The new research was published online by the magazine Computers in Human Behavior 28 September.
