‘Like’ it or not, teen brain is primed to join the crowd
The Washington Post:
About the easiest action you can take in social media is to “like” a tweet or a photo.
If you’re a teenager, your brain is particularly primed to “like” what others have “liked,” according to researchers from UCLA.
Their new study, published in Psychological Science, is thought to be the first to replicate the social media experience while people are inside an fMRI scanner. The findings underscore the importance of both reward-seeking behavior and peer acceptance in adolescence.
Thirty-four adolescents, ages 13-18, roughly equal numbers male and female, participated in the experiment. All were shown images from Instagram: a mixture of neutral pictures and those depicting “risky” behaviors, such as smoking marijuana, making rude gestures and wearing skimpy clothing. For each image, the subjects had to decide whether to “like” it. They were asked to respond as if they were on their own social media accounts.
Read the whole story: The Washington Post
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