Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
Publication Title
Psychological Reports
Keywords
social comparison, experiment, emotional contagion, happy-for-ness, envy, subjective well-being
Abstract
Social media are known for their overly-positive contents posted by diverse network members; but little research has directly explored the effects of individual happy posts on receivers’ well-being. Two original online experiments (Study 1: N = 326 adults in English-speaking countries; Study 2: N = 111 undergraduates in the United States) tested the effects of the desirability of a post’s content on subjective well-being, as well as direct and moderating effects of the relational tie, and additionally moderated by the perceived selective self-presentation of the post. Results of the 2 (envy: high v. low) × 2 (relational closeness: close v. distant) experiment did not evidence main effects of envy (both benign and malicious) or main or moderating effect of relational closeness; but did provide mixed findings for the main effect of selective self-presentation. Findings are discussed with respect to social comparison theory and extant literature regarding the role of passive social media use on users’ well-being.
Funding Source
Funding for Study 1 of this work was supported by Illinois State University School of Communuication. This article was published open access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Sage Journals.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
DOI
10.1177/00332941261466224
Recommended Citation
Obiri, A. K., Pappoe, D. A. S., Otoo, E. K., & Carr, C. T. (2026). Finding Freudenfreude: Deriving Subjective Well-Being From Passive Observation of a Relational Tie’s Happiness via Social Media Post. Psychological Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941261466224
Comments
First published in Psychological Reports (2026): https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941261466224