Nature Communications (Oct 2020)

Authentic self-expression on social media is associated with greater subjective well-being

  • Erica R. Bailey,
  • Sandra C. Matz,
  • Wu Youyou,
  • Sheena S. Iyengar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18539-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

Read online

It is often tempting for social media users to present themselves in an idealized way. Here, based on analyses of a large set of Facebook profiles together with a longitudinal experiment, the authors find evidence that more authentic self-expression may be psychologically beneficial, as it is related to greater well-being.