"You Liked That Instagram Post?!" An Experimental Study on the Impact of Instagram Likes on Negative Emotions in Adolescent Romantic Relationships

• In Event: Social media and adolescent relationships: The good, the bad, and the complicated

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical developmental period when sexual and romantic relationships emerge (Suleiman et al., 2017; Ha et al., 2019). During this period, 89% of teens use social media and 73% check it at least once per day (Rideout & Robb, 2018). A heightened interest in dating and technology has created a unique intersection for teens, wherein their digital worlds play a role in their romantic relationships. Studies with adults find that romantic partner technology and smartphone use relates to jealousy and conflict (e.g. McDaniel, et al., 2018; Utz, et al., 2018). However, most of this research is correlational, and research with adolescents remains largely qualitative (e.g., Van Ouytsel, et al., 2019). Little is known about the role of social media in relationship-relevant emotions in adolescent populations. Some research has indicated that “liking” posts from the opposite sex leads to jealousy (Van Ouytsel, et al., 2019), but other factors have not been examined, particularly not experimentally. Given that Instagram is the most popular social media among adolescents (Anderson & Jiang, 2018), we examined whether various aspects of a hypothetical Instagram post “liked” by a romantic partner influenced adolescents’ negative relationship emotions (feeling upset and jealous).
Participants were 714 heterosexual middle and high school students (49.3% female; Mage = 13.73 years, SD = 1.54; 50.8% Hispanic/Latino, 28% White/Caucasian). Adolescents were randomly assigned to one of 12 conditions (Figure 1). Instagram posts were accompanied by brief descriptions, in which three factors were manipulated: gender of the individual in the post (male, female), familiarity (individual not known, individual known), and number of likes (10, 100, and 1000 likes). Adolescents indicated how upset and jealous they would feel if their partner had liked this post (1 = not at all to 5 = extremely).
Two ANCOVA models were used to analyze the main effects and interactions of the manipulated factors on feeling upset and jealous, controlling for dating experience and the frequency that such an experience usually occurred. A significant main effect for gender was found, such that adolescents would feel significantly more upset if their partner liked the post of an opposite gender individual compared to a same-sex individual (F(1,549) = 9.07, p = .003). No main effects for familiarity or number of likes were found, and there were no significant interactions. Findings for jealousy followed the same pattern with a main effect of gender (F(1, 544) = 22.22, p < .0001).
Results suggest that adolescents expect to feel more upset and jealous when their romantic partner likes an Instagram post from someone of the opposite gender, implying that simple digital behaviors (i.e., liking a post) by one partner can influence negative emotions in the other. Because of adolescents’ frequent use of social media, they are likely to experience such an event multiple times a day. This may disrupt adolescents’ romantic relationships and negatively impact emotional wellbeing over time. This study increases our understanding of how digital behaviors are associated with real-world outcomes for adolescent romantic relationships.

Authors

• Selena I. Quiroz, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Thao Ha, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Samantha F. Anderson, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author