Do Different Visual Elements Impact Social Media Engagement and Retention?
Faculty Mentor(s) Name(s)
Dianna Young
Abstract
Previous fMRI research has revealed several distinct brain regions that are selective in the visual elements they respond to. For example, neurons in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) have been found to respond maximally in the presence of faces, but not other non-face stimuli (Kanwisher et al., 1997). Another brain area, the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA), is typically activated when someone views indoor and outdoor scenes and places (Aguirre et al., 1998; Epstein et al., 1999). Finally, neurons in the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) are preferentially activated by human bodies and parts of bodies, excluding faces (Downing et al., 2001). Social media (SM) content often presents these same types of visual stimuli, which suggests that these specialized brain areas would be selectively active as the users view various types of images in their feed. SM users regularly come across posts with images of bodies, faces, locations, and words, and it would be beneficial for content creators on these sites to have access to research informing the impact of the kinds of visual content they post. To our knowledge, there has been little research that specifically examines possible differences in engagement when viewing posts with different types of images as the focal point. Additionally, there appears to be a gap in the literature when it comes to researching how physical user engagement (e.g. likes or comments on a SM post) correlates with cognitive engagement (e.g. memory for specific details in the posts). This study explores whether key determinants of physical engagement on SM posts, as measured by like/comment/reaction activity, and cognitive engagement, as measured by performance on recall questions, change as a result of different types of visual content. We hypothesize that posts activating these brain regions will lead to greater user engagement and greater memory retrieval performance than SM posts lacking such visual elements. Additionally, we are exploring whether participants who are more physically attentive to SM feed also recall the details of the feed better and thus perform more successfully on a multiple-choice recognition survey. In this repeated measures research design, participants scroll through a mock SM feed using The Misinformation Game, a mock SM computer software program (Butler et al., 2023). Within the Misinformation Game, participants encounter four distinct types of SM posts: posts including a face in the picture, posts including body parts, posts including locations/places, and control posts with graphics that do not include any faces, places, or body parts. All participants are presented with 12 mock SM posts, each of which fits within one of the conditions. Participants are asked to interact with the SM feed like they would regularly interact with SM, as they are able to like, comment on, and re-share posts. Once they exit the SM feed, participants will complete a demographics questionnaire on the computer. Then, they respond to a series of multiple-choice recognition questions on the computer to test their level of “cognitive engagement” with specific posts as represented by the accuracy of their memory of the information contained in the 12 posts. To examine whether participants’ physical engagement and cognitive engagement differs across the four different types of posts, we will use repeated measures ANOVAs. Additionally, to test whether there is a positive relationship between one’s physical engagement (number of likes and comments on the posts overall) with the SM feed and one’s cognitive engagement (recognition performance on the multiple-choice tests), we will run Pearson correlations.
Start Date
27-3-2024 9:00 AM
End Date
27-3-2024 9:50 AM
Location
Magnolia Ballroom
Do Different Visual Elements Impact Social Media Engagement and Retention?
Magnolia Ballroom
Previous fMRI research has revealed several distinct brain regions that are selective in the visual elements they respond to. For example, neurons in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) have been found to respond maximally in the presence of faces, but not other non-face stimuli (Kanwisher et al., 1997). Another brain area, the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA), is typically activated when someone views indoor and outdoor scenes and places (Aguirre et al., 1998; Epstein et al., 1999). Finally, neurons in the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) are preferentially activated by human bodies and parts of bodies, excluding faces (Downing et al., 2001). Social media (SM) content often presents these same types of visual stimuli, which suggests that these specialized brain areas would be selectively active as the users view various types of images in their feed. SM users regularly come across posts with images of bodies, faces, locations, and words, and it would be beneficial for content creators on these sites to have access to research informing the impact of the kinds of visual content they post. To our knowledge, there has been little research that specifically examines possible differences in engagement when viewing posts with different types of images as the focal point. Additionally, there appears to be a gap in the literature when it comes to researching how physical user engagement (e.g. likes or comments on a SM post) correlates with cognitive engagement (e.g. memory for specific details in the posts). This study explores whether key determinants of physical engagement on SM posts, as measured by like/comment/reaction activity, and cognitive engagement, as measured by performance on recall questions, change as a result of different types of visual content. We hypothesize that posts activating these brain regions will lead to greater user engagement and greater memory retrieval performance than SM posts lacking such visual elements. Additionally, we are exploring whether participants who are more physically attentive to SM feed also recall the details of the feed better and thus perform more successfully on a multiple-choice recognition survey. In this repeated measures research design, participants scroll through a mock SM feed using The Misinformation Game, a mock SM computer software program (Butler et al., 2023). Within the Misinformation Game, participants encounter four distinct types of SM posts: posts including a face in the picture, posts including body parts, posts including locations/places, and control posts with graphics that do not include any faces, places, or body parts. All participants are presented with 12 mock SM posts, each of which fits within one of the conditions. Participants are asked to interact with the SM feed like they would regularly interact with SM, as they are able to like, comment on, and re-share posts. Once they exit the SM feed, participants will complete a demographics questionnaire on the computer. Then, they respond to a series of multiple-choice recognition questions on the computer to test their level of “cognitive engagement” with specific posts as represented by the accuracy of their memory of the information contained in the 12 posts. To examine whether participants’ physical engagement and cognitive engagement differs across the four different types of posts, we will use repeated measures ANOVAs. Additionally, to test whether there is a positive relationship between one’s physical engagement (number of likes and comments on the posts overall) with the SM feed and one’s cognitive engagement (recognition performance on the multiple-choice tests), we will run Pearson correlations.