07 Aug 2009, Posted by christie in Psych Lite,featured, 14 Comments

Facebook makes jealousy and snooping worse

In a blend of fun internet use and scientific method, we have a study from the peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology & Behavior which actually proves that spending more time on Facebook can make jealousy worse, and that then leads to a cycle of obsessively looking at your partner’s Facebook page and finding more evidence for jealousy. Previous articles have stated this same thing, but this was the first study to control for personality, individual, and relationship factors and analyze the data in a statistical, scientific way. The analysis shows that Facebook use significantly predicts Facebook-related jealousy. I’m not really surprised! I don’t have a Facebook account right now, but from what I’ve seen with my sons, I had already wondered if people nowadays come home from a good or bad date and rush to see if the other person has changed their status from “In a relationship” to “Single” or vice versa. I mean, if Seinfeld had taken place in modern times, I know for sure that would be part of an episode. “Do you think she just hasn’t had a chance to get to her computer, or does she still consider herself single, not in a relationship??” Gone are the good old days when we had to rely on rumor and endless speculation with friends to find out more about someone and who they were talking to.

For the study, three hundred eight college (undergraduate) students completed an online survey that took in their demographic and personality factors and their current Facebook use. Most of the students were in a relationship, either dating or (a few) married, and this status was recorded. The jealousy study data was collected as part of a larger study on undergraduate Facebook use. The Facebook Jealousy Scale was created for the current study in order to measure jealousy that was directly to do with Facebook. A list of items was compiled that reflected aspects of Facebook that have the potential to contribute to jealousy. A group of Facebook users then reviewed the items on the scale to validate it. After statistical analysis of their answers, the final Facebook Jealousy Scale consisted of 27 items, measured on a 7-point scale (very unlikely to very likely) that measured Facebook related jealousy. Sample items include ‘‘How likely are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sex?’’ and ‘‘How likely are you to monitor your partner’s activities on Facebook?’’ Other factors include general tendency toward jealousy and other personality traits, and one item measured the amount of time participants spent on Facebook. Participants were also asked to provide demographic information and descriptive information about their use and their partners’ use of Facebook, and they were asked one essay question to allow them to freely provide information about their experience of jealousy on Facebook.

Results:

Increased time spent on Facebook was a significant predictor of jealousy and obsessively looking at Facebook. Was that because people who spend more time on Facebook are just people who are more likely to get jealous anyway, or did the time spent on Facebook make them jealous? Really, it was thought that both were true and both ideas fed into each other. For some of the participants for sure, the very fact that they were jealous led to more and more time searching their partner’s page. Facebook gives people access to information about their partner that would not otherwise be accessible. One participant was quoted, ‘‘It turns people into nosey parkers…all of that personal information is totally unnecessary, but no one can help themselves.’’ Of course some people were watching and concerned when people of the opposite sex posted something on their own partner’s wall, and some of those people posting had been previous relationships for the partners, which increased the jealousy. The data was scientifically evaluated, with various factors for gender, self-esteem, and other personal factors controlled for in order to determine that the jealousy they were measuring came straight from Facebook use.

Of course this was done on college students, so the results might be different in other adults who are not undergrads. It’s very interesting anyway – the results are pretty intuitive, I’d think, but it’s still fun to see someone do a real study about psychological effects of our time online.

Reference:

CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
Volume 12, Number 4, 2009
ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089=cpb.2008.0263

Photo credit: jelene