That’s so OCD: The Effects of Disease Trivialization via Social Media on User Perceptions and Impression Formation

• In Event: Social Support via Social Media #2

Abstract

Informal discussions of mental illness take place every day in social media. In the case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), in particular, widespread use of the hashtag “#OCD” indicates that social media users often trivialize the disease. This experiment (N = 574) tested the impact of trivialized framing of this disease on perceptions of individuals who use such language as well as on perceptions of people with OCD as a group. Additionally, this study tested the effects of the gender of the Twitter avatar and self-identification in the avatar biography as an individual with OCD on these perceptions. Results indicate that language use, gender, and self-identification impact impression formation in a social media environment.

Author

• Rachelle Liane Pavelko, Indiana U