Professor Dara Greenwood, Daria Lochoshvili ’22, Psychological Science Department

Professor Dara Greenwood is planning to write the textbook Social Psychology of Mass Media that will draw upon the disciplines of both psychology and media studies in order to explore the widespread psychological impact of mass media. This summer, Alice Aldoukhov and I researched the most recent literature about some of the topics that will be covered in the textbook.

Alice and I meeting over Zoom to discuss our findings and exchange some research tips

The first area I researched was advertising and persuasion. I explored the power of personalized advertising that targets consumers by using their personal information from their online profiles and browsing histories. Some studies showed that personalized ads are more effective than general ads because they enhance the personal relevance of the message for consumers, while other studies demonstrated that personalized ads may increase privacy concerns, thus leading to less persuasion. I also explored the importance of the source in persuasion and how different characteristics, such as expertise, trustworthiness, etc., affect the persuasiveness of the message. I researched social media influencers who are frequently hired by different brands to promote their products.

PsycInfo and Communication & Mass Media Complete were the two databases that I used most of the time for my research

Another topic that I delved into was the influence of celebrities on people’s body image. I found that Instagram is one of the most relevant platforms to this literature because many celebrities actively use Instagram to depict their private and professional lives. Moreover, Instagram is based solely on photo-sharing, so appearance plays a primary role on this platform. I also investigated the impact of fashion shows, specifically Victoria’s Secret, on women’s mental health and body image. At last, I found some factors, such as parasocial relationships with celebrities and parodies of thin-ideal images, that may alleviate the immense negative influence of the slender body ideal on people.