Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace

AI aversion? Effects of author disclosure on young people’s perceptions of mental health advice

2026-02-23T14:53:13+01:00

The increasing use of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, is already impacting how young people seek mental health support online. However, AI aversion, the reluctance or resistance individuals feel toward AI, may influence individuals’ perceptions and willingness to engage with LLM-generated advice. In this mixed-method study, we investigated how 440 young people (aged 17–21) perceived mental health advice from ChatGPT compared with that of health professionals, emphasizing the effect of author disclosure. Participants assessed answers from ChatGPT and health professionals across four dimensions—Validation, Relevance, Clarity, and Utility—and were asked to recommend answers. The findings indicate a preference for AI-generated answers when participants were unaware of the author’s identity: ChatGPT’s answers scored significantly higher on Validation, Relevance, Clarity, and Utility. Conversely, when the author was disclosed, participants favored responses from health professionals and rated their answers significantly higher for Validation, indicating AI aversion. Qualitative data further revealed that participants became more critical when they knew the content was AI-generated, while responses from health professionals were viewed as more credible, empathetic, and tailored. These findings may indicate human favoritism. The study makes the key contribution of identifying how source awareness impacts the reception of AI-generated content in a sensitive domain. To address the potential for AI aversion within help-seeking, our findings suggest the importance of developing hybrid human–AI support models that combine the efficiency of AI with the relational legitimacy of human professionals, improving both the acceptance and impact of digital mental health support.

Social media as sources of sexual health knowledge: A compensatory or complementary form of education?

2025-07-25T13:26:42+02:00

Recent research has shown that information about sexuality is increasingly prevalent on social media. At the same time, it is well-documented that sexual health content shared or created by laypeople can be misleading or inaccurate. This study investigates who consumes sexual health knowledge on these platforms and tests whether social media technologies have a compensatory (i.e., making up for a lack of sexual education elsewhere) or complementary (i.e., enhancing sexual information individuals obtain elsewhere) function for sexual education. Results from a survey conducted in early 2023 among N = 1,245 adult social media users living in Germany (age: M = 41.94 years, SD = 14.47; gender identity: 50.3% identified as female, 49.3% as male, 0.4% as other) indicated that young, male, and highly educated individuals are more likely to be exposed to sexual education on social media. Among participants, 54.1% indicated that they encounter sexual misinformation at least sometimes. Findings further provide evidence for both mechanisms—educational compensation and educational enhancement: Individuals with stronger sexual communication apprehension, as well as those who tend to engage in sexuality-related talk in everyday life, expose themselves more frequently to sexual education. These findings have implications for theory building in the field of informal education processes through contemporary technologies and for the design of sexuality-related educational interventions.

Selling yourself short: How sexualized online dating profiles affect viewers’ perceptions and relationship intentions

2025-12-20T12:06:51+01:00

People often use sexualized images in their online dating profiles to stand out. However, this strategy can backfire, hurting their chances of finding a partner. Three studies examined the effects of sexualized profiles on how viewers see profile owners while investigating why and when sexualization can have negative effects. Across all studies, unpartnered participants assessed sexualized and non-sexualized dating profiles, providing ratings on their perceptions of profile owners and their own relationship intentions. Study 1 revealed that owners of sexualized profiles faced heightened negative judgments and were perceived as less desirable partners (although these findings should be regarded as preliminary due to the use of different profile owners across conditions). Study 2 found diminished interest in establishing long-term relationships with sexualized profile owners due to perceiving them as less suitable partners. Study 3 showed that adding humanizing self-descriptions counteracted the negative effects of sexualization for female profiles but not for male profiles. These findings suggest that whether sexualization leads to negative judgments depends on its contextual meaning.

Knowledge benefits through work-related social media use: A preregistered measurement burst study

2026-01-09T09:37:59+01:00

The claim that work-related social media use can help people to get better access to information has received cross-sectional empirical support, but it remains unclear to what extent these benefits are really media effects or rather selection effects. We conducted a year-long five-wave panel study with two intensive measurement periods (bi-daily assessment for one workweek after Waves 3 and 4) to disentangle within- and between-person effects. Within-person effects would support the claim that there are media effects on work-related outcomes. By looking at two different timeframes (half-day vs. three months), we also aim to explore on which timescales these effects evolve. Our analyses focused on reading and posting on social media and controlled for networking (waves) and workload (bursts) as potential confounders. In line with preregistered predictions, we found that within-person increases in reading and posting differentially predicted increases in informational benefits, ambient awareness, serendipity, creativity, and productivity measured at the same time period. Reading was positively related to the outcomes in both bursts and waves. Posting, in contrast, showed positive associations with most outcomes only within the same half‑day (bursts), and with creativity alone in the waves. In contrast, we found no consistent lagged effects at half-day or three-month intervals. In addition, between-person differences also emerged, especially for posting. Individuals who posted more often reported higher creativity and serendipity. Overall, the stronger within-person effects observed in the bursts suggest that WRSMU may provide positive, but predominantly short-term, benefits.

The role of nonverbal communication cues in reducing videoconference fatigue: A comparison of 2D and virtual reality videoconference platforms

2025-12-17T11:38:18+01:00

Videoconferencing for work and study purposes has become increasingly prevalent in people's daily lives. However, the negative effects of prolonged and frequent use of videoconferencing, particularly videoconference fatigue (VF), have also become more severe. With technological advancements, virtual reality (VR) videoconferencing has been proposed as a potential solution to mitigate these negative impacts, especially concerning nonverbal communication cues. This study investigates the varying effects of VR conferencing and traditional 2D videoconferencing on users’ nonverbal communication cues and VF. In total, 216 university students (M_age = 22.65, SD = 3.28; 44% male, 56% female) were randomly paired and assigned to use either VR or Zoom for a videoconferencing task. The findings revealed that students using VR reported fewer negative outcomes from nonverbal communication cues compared to those using Zoom. Among the nonverbal communication cues studied, only perceptions of feeling physically trapped significantly influenced VF, while mirror anxiety, production of nonverbal cues, and hyper-gaze were not found to be related. The results suggest that VR conferencing may offer a more effective approach to reducing VF by minimizing the negative effects of nonverbal communication cues.

The dark triad and cyber aggression: Testing the longitudinal mediation of moral disengagement and toxic online disinhibition

2025-10-29T19:32:31+01:00

An emerging body of research has consistently linked the Dark Triad traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—to cyber aggression. Moral disengagement and toxic online disinhibition have been identified as two psychological processes that may explain this association. However, longitudinal studies simultaneously examining these two mediators in the context of cyber aggression remain scarce, even though such designs are essential for clarifying temporal order and capturing dynamic processes. To address this gap, we conducted a three-wave longitudinal study in which 625 participants completed all three waves of the survey (M_age = 27.54, SD_age = 6.23, age range: 20–58; 392 females). We tested a longitudinal mediation model to examine whether moral disengagement and toxic online disinhibition mediate the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and cyber aggression. Toxic online disinhibition was found to be the only significant mediator. This mediating effect was statistically significant for Machiavellianism and psychopathy, but not for narcissism. These findings suggest that toxic online disinhibition may serve as a more robust pathway than moral disengagement in explaining how specific Dark Triad traits contribute to cyber aggression.

Phubbing and relational evaluation among college students: A longitudinal study

2026-02-13T08:11:37+01:00

Phubbing, the act of ignoring others in favor of mobile phone use, has become a widespread phenomenon in social settings and poses increasing challenges to college students’ interpersonal relationships. The present study used a three-wave longitudinal design to examine the impact of peer phubbing on relational evaluation, with a particular focus on the mediating role of psychological needs threat, the moderating role of perceived social norms, and the cumulative nature of these effects over time. Data were collected from 593 Chinese college students across three waves spanning six months. The results showed that peer phubbing at earlier time points predicted higher levels of psychological needs threat and lower relational evaluation at later time points, whereas relational evaluation did not predict subsequent phubbing behavior. Psychological needs threat significantly mediated the longitudinal association between peer phubbing and relational evaluation, while perceived social norms did not moderate the effect of peer phubbing on needs threat and relational evaluation. These findings suggest that peer phubbing undermines situational interpersonal relationship experiences regardless of its perceived normative status. Moreover, peer phubbing appears to function not merely as a momentary interpersonal disruption but as a recurring form of everyday social exclusion with cumulative psychological and relational consequences.

Problematic Mobile Media Use as a Family Issue: A Latent Profile Analysis in Parent-Child Dyads

2026-02-23T11:50:33+01:00

Current research primarily addresses children’s problematic mobile media use (PMMU) and its negative outcomes, leaving a gap in our understanding of how parents’ PMMU might contribute to a problematic media culture within the home. The study aimed to (a) identify family profiles based on PMMU by the child and parent simultaneously through latent profile analysis and examine their associations with (b) sociodemographic factors and (c) key indicators of family well-being, specifically child self-esteem, parental self-efficacy and parent-child conflict. Using a sample of 410 parent-child dyads, primarily mother-daughter pairs (42.4%), with preadolescent children (8-14 years; M_age = 11.5), we identified four profiles based on cross-sectional dyadic survey data; Families with high child PMMU (46.6%), families with low child PMMU (16.1%), media-balanced families (33.2%) and media-immersed families (4.2%). Results showed notable sociodemographic variations, including a higher prevalence of only-child families in the media-immersed group, and revealed that families with high child PMMU and media-immersed family profiles were linked to lower personal and relational well-being within the family. These findings emphasize the importance of family-centered approaches to PMMU prevention and intervention.