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Associations between emotion recognition and social networking site

addiction

Pınar Ünal-Aydın , Kuzeymen Balıkçı , úIpek Sönmez ,

Orkun Aydın

PII: S0165-1781(19)31357-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112673
Reference: PSY 112673

To appear in: Psychiatry Research

Received date: 20 June 2019

Revised date: 31 October 2019
Accepted date: 31 October 2019

Please cite this article as: Pınar Ünal-Aydın , Kuzeymen Balıkçı , úIpek Sönmez , Orkun Aydın , As-
sociations between emotion recognition and social networking site addiction, Psychiatry Research
(2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112673

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Highlights
 Social networking site (SNS) addicts showed poor performance in recognition of negative
emotions.
 The conflict in relationships of SNS addicts was associated with positive and negative
emotion recognition.
 The weak ability of positive emotion recognition predicted SNS addiction.
Associations between emotion recognition and social networking site addiction

Pınar Ünal-Aydına, Kuzeymen Balıkçıb, İpek Sönmezb, Orkun Aydına*

a
Department of Psychology, International University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo ,Bosnia
Herzegovina;

b
Department of Psychiatry, Near East University Faculty of Medicine, , Nicosia, Northern
Cyprus Turkish Republic;

Corresponding Author: Orkun AYDIN, Assist. Prof., MD

Adress: International University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Hrasnička
cesta 15, 71210 Ilidža, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tel: +387 33 957 315

Fax : +387 33 957 105

e-mail: oaydin@ius.edu.ba
Funding source: There wasn‟t any funding source utilized for the current study.
Conflict of interest: There was no conflict of interest between authors.

Abstract

With the widespread use of the internet today, many studies have been conducted regarding

the use of social networking sites (SNS). Despite the growing literature on the effects of SNS

on human life, there are limited successful therapeutic interventions for SNS addiction. Our

study aimed to elucidate the potential role of emotion recognition in the development of SNS

addiction and to propose novel strategies for alleviating problems emerging from SNS
addiction. A total of 337 individuals participated in the study. A sociodemographic data form,

the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), and the Social Media Addiction Scale

(SMAS) were administered. The results revealed the presence of emotion recognition deficits

among individuals with SNS addiction, relative to non-addicts. RMET positive and negative

scores were associated with SNS addiction in a negative direction. Additionally, RMET

negative scores predicted SNS addiction. Our findings indicate a possible link between SNS

addiction and emotion recognition, which might serve as a crucial target in novel treatment

strategies.

Keywords: social networking site; addiction; internet; emotion recognition; facial expression;

social media

1. Introduction

Social networking sites (SNS) are any web-based, computer-mediated tools to share,

create, or exchange ideas, information, videos, or pictures in virtual networks and

communities.(e.g. social. networks, message boards, patient.forums, Twitter, Blogs,

Instagram, and Facebook) (Obar and Wildman, 2015). SNS addiction is a problem among

users of all kinds, including ordinary people, who experience psychological, physical, and

social impacts in their lives (Sevilla, 2012). It has been reported that the symptoms of SNS

addiction mimic the symptoms related with other addictions, which include salience, conflict,

tolerance, withdrawal, relapse, and mood modification (Griffiths, 2005).

The excessive use of social media results in many negative situations among SNS

addicts. Poor quality of sleep, excessive mental occupation, repetitive thoughts about control

of use, failure to prevent access, and spending increased time on the internet each time owing

to social media are reported in literature as undesirable states associated with SNS addiction

(Andreassen, 2015; Dewald et al., 2010).

 The competency for recognizing the emotional states of other people is important,

particularly in everyday social functioning (Kohler et al., 2004). Accordingly, emotion

recognition ability has been shown to be impaired in many psychiatric disorders such as

anxiety disorders (Aydın et al., 2019), schizophrenia (Balikci et al., 2018), eating disorders

(Harrison et al., 2009), personality disorders (Fertuck et al., 2009) as well as alcohol (Bora

and Zorlu, 2017) and substance use disorders (Dolder et al., 2016). The development of SNS

addiction, just as in other types of addiction, might be explained by neurobiological (Kuss and

Griffiths, 2012), personality (Hong et al., 2014), sociocultural (Ji et al., 2010), behavioural

(Ryan et al., 2014), and cognitive factors (Schou Andreassen and Pallesen, 2014). However,

emotion recognition patterns have not been assessed in previous studies related to SNS

addiction.

In the course of time, it is obvious that individuals with SNS addiction encounter

unfavourable consequences in relational, emotional, performance, and health related aspects

of their life (Andreassen, 2015). Nevertheless, self-help methods, relaxation exercises,

cognitive behavioural therapy techniques, and psychiatric medications such as antidepressants

can be utilized to alleviate the problems emerging from SNS addiction (Andreassen, 2015).

Although such interventional methods are supposed to be effective, the therapeutic outcomes

in the prevention of SNS addiction are not promising and the search for new treatment

modalities continues (Schou Andreassen and Pallesen, 2014). Therefore, the determination of

problems in emotion recognition might provide evidence for novel treatments for individuals

with SNS addiction, and acquisition of effective emotion recognition might enhance their

mental well-being. In this study we aimed to explore whether there were differences in

emotion recognition between individuals with SNS addiction when compared with the non-

addicts. Moreover, we investigated whether disturbances in emotion recognition ability could

predict SNS addiction. We hypothesised that individuals with SNS addiction have poorer
performance in emotion recognition relative to non-addicts and lower performance in emotion

recognition could predict SNS addiction.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Participants

A total of 337 individuals participated in the present study. The individuals were

college students attending the Near East University and the International University of

Sarajevo. We placed an advertisement on the internet and made an announcement through

social media platforms for participant recruitment. Those who volunteered to participate in

the study were exempted from one homework assignment equalling 2.5% of the overall

course grade. The students who did not want to participate in the study could obtain this credit

by submitting the homework assignment. The homework assignment and participation in the

study were comparable in terms of the time, effort, and fulfilment of course requirements. All

students were free to withdraw from participation at any point without penalty. Students who

withdrew from the study also received full course credit for participation. The inclusion

criteria were as follows: being 18–65 years old, being able to fill in the applied forms/tests

and having at least one SNS account. The presence of any psychiatric disorder, use of

psychiatric medications, and having a neurocognitive disorder which affects cognitive

functioning were the exclusion criteria. Fourteen participants were excluded due to the

presence of mental disorders based on their self-report (cannabis use disorder (3), attention

deficit and hyperactivity disorder (1), major depressive disorder (3), obsessive compulsive

disorder (3), and bipolar disorder (4)). Two participants could not complete the tests. All

participants approved the informed consent in a written format. The study was approved by

the Institutional Review Board of Near East University (Meeting no: 2019/65, Project no:

714).
2.2 Instruments

2.2.1 Sociodemographic form

The participants‟ demographic characteristics (age, gender, education, marital and economical

status, current location, and tobacco and alcohol use) and SNS/internet use patterns were

evaluated with the sociodemographic form prepared by the researchers.

2.2.2 Social Media Addiction Scale

The Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS; Tutgun-Ünal, 2015) has been developed to

measure the styles of SNS use for the Turkish population and includes 41-items. It is a self-

report instrument in which the items are rated on a five-point Likert scale: 1 (never), 2 (rare),

3 (sometimes), 4 (often), and 5 (always). The scale consists of four sub-dimensions:

occupation (SMAS-O), mood modification (SMAS-MM), relapse (SMAS-R), and conflict

(SMAS-C). Higher scores in each subtest indicate greater pathological SNS use and addiction,

whereas an overall test score under 74 refers to non-addiction. The test was found to be valid

and reliable in a Turkish sample, with good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging

from 0.89 to 0.96) and acceptable test–retest reliability (ranging from 0.59 to 0.84; Tutgun-

Ünal, 2015).

2.2.3 The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) was used for assessing social

cognitive ability. The RMET‟s revised version presents 36 photographs depicting only the eye

region of the face with four complex mental state words (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001).

Participants were asked to find the word which best describes the thought or feeling expressed

in the photograph. The photographs included in the test involve complex emotional and

cognitive states. The test scores can be calculated for positive, negative, and neutral emotions,

separately (Harkness et al., 2005). The test-retest reliability was measured using the Bland-
Altman method (r=0,650; p<0,01 (%95 CI: 0,490-0,768)). After grouping the responses for

each of the questions as correct or incorrect, the results of the reliability were examined by the

Kuder–Richardson 20 method (KR20=0,72). It was found that the RMET, consisting of 32

items, is valid and reliable in the Turkish sample (Yildirim et al., 2011).

2.3 Statistical analyses

Statistical analyses were performed with data of 321 participants. The test results of

four participants were not included owing to extreme values in the self-report tests. First,

normality was checked with the Shapiro-Wilk test and all scales fulfilled the assumptions of

normality. The participants were then distributed into two groups according to their overall

score on the SMAS: 120 individuals who scored less than 74 points in SMAS-total

represented the non-addict participants, and the remaining 197 individuals comprised the SNS

addicts. The sociodemographic variables were analysed by chi-square and t-tests. In order to

compare SMAS and RMET, we performed a MANCOVA (using the Bonferroni method),

controlling for the possible effects of sociodemographic differences across groups. We

utilised Pearson‟s correlations for exploring the relationships between RMET and SMAS in

the SNS addicts. Following this, linear regression analysis (using the enter method) was

performed with the variables found to be significant during the correlational analyses, to

validate the association between SMAS and RMET. Lastly, binary logistic regression

analyses were conducted to find potential predictors (RMET) in the discrimination of SNS

addicts and non-addicts. The statistical significance (p value) was adjusted as 0.05 and all

analyses were carried out using statistical analyses software (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY. SPSS

Statistics 22.0).

3. Results
3.1 Characteristics of the groups

A significant difference in age was found between the groups. There were no

differences in the gender, education, and marital and economical status of the two groups. The

groups had no differences in residential area. Moreover, they showed similar patterns in

tobacco and alcohol use. The SNS addicts were using the internet and SNS more frequently;

moreover, they were checking their SNS accounts more often when compared to the non-

addict group. The characteristics of the groups are reported in Table 1.

3.2 Comparison of SMAS and RMET scores of the groups

Descriptive statistics for the SMAS and RMET subtests for each group are shown in

Table 2. In order to control for its possible effects, age was treated as a covariate. There was

no significant effect of age (Wilks Lambda; F(8,307)=0.95; p=0.06; ηρ2=0.04) in the groups.

Multivariate testing found the effect for significant group difference (Wilks Lambda;

F(8,307)=0.41; p=0.01; ηρ2=0.38). The SNS addicts obtained higher scores in all of the

SMAS subtests and SMAS total score relative to the non-addicts. Individuals with SNS

addiction scored lower points in RMET-negative subtest and RMET-total. However, the

RMET-positive and neutral subtest scores did not differ between groups.

3.3 Associations between SMAS and RMET among SNS addicts

Pearson‟s correlation coefficients are presented in Table 3. We found negative

correlations between SMAS-C subtest and RMET positive, negative, and total score across

SNS addicts. In addition, SMAS-total was only associated with RMET positive score in a

negative direction. Linear regressions were performed for validating the associations between

SMAS-C subtest, SMAS total score, and RMET subtests. The RMET total score was not

entered into the analysis due to the presence of high collinearity with the other RMET
subtests. According to the equation, RMET-positive and negative subtest scores had a

negative relationship with SMAS-C. Additionally, SMAS-total was negatively associated

with the RMET-positive subtest. These results are shown in Table 4.

3.4. Discrimination between the SNS addicts and non-addicts according to the RMET

scores

In group comparisons, only RMET-negative (p=0.02) was found to be different between

groups. Although RMET-total (p=0.05) was not different between the groups, the statistical

value was close to significance, and therefore, we included it in the equation. Hence, RMET

negative and total scores were entered into the binary logistic regression respectively, to

predict group discrimination. The RMET negative score was found to be significant (Wald‫׳‬s

χ2(df=1)=5.22; p=0.02; Exp(B)=0.85, 95% C.I.=0.74-0.97) in predicting group differences,

accounting for 62.1% of the overall percentage. However, RMET-total (Wald‫׳‬s χ2(df=1)=2.73;

p=0.09; Exp(B)=0.94, 95% C.I.=0.88-1.01) did not predict the discrimination across groups.

4. Discussion

4.1. Emotion recognition performance of the SNS addicts and non-addicts

The primary finding of our study indicated that SNS addicted individuals have poorer

emotion recognition ability, particularly in identifying negative emotions from facial

expressions. However, the competency in recognizing positive and neutral emotions was

similar in both groups.

In our knowledge, this is the first study which aimed to discover the association between

emotion recognition and SNS addiction. Owing to the scarcity of similar studies in the

literature, we cannot draw strong conclusions regarding comparative results. Nonetheless, we

attempt to shed light on these findings by taking into account previous studies conducted on
other addictions such as alcohol use disorder (AUD), substance use disorder (SUD), and

internet addiction (IA). One study reported that individuals with AUD misidentified emotions

and were biased toward negative emotions (Freeman et al., 2018). In another study, risky

alcohol use predicted poor performance in RMET (Lyvers et al., 2018). In patients with

cannabis use disorder, the identification of negative emotions was worse during the

abstinence period relative to healthy controls; however, they did not differ in the recognition

of positive emotions (Bayrakçı et al., 2015). Similarly, heroin addicts had impaired emotion

recognition when compared with healthy individuals (Craparo et al., 2016). In another study,

adolescents with IA showed lower performance in identifying their own emotions and the

researchers recommended focussing on emotion regulation in the treatment of IA (Karaer and

Akdemir, 2019). In a recent study, individuals with IA were found to have deficits in

recognizing negative emotions, particularly for the facial expression of disgust; however,

there were no similar findings for other emotions (Chen et al., 2017). In a similar vein, a study

revealed that internet addicted participants showed difficulties in identifying negative

emotions due to inappropriate processing methods such as longer or inadequate fixations on

facial expressions, when compared with non-addict participants (Ge et al., 2017). Therefore,

our findings regarding poor emotion recognition in SNS addiction are consistent with

previous studies conducted among various types of addiction. This result could be interpreted

as disorders related with addiction possibly sharing a common underlying pathology in

emotion recognition.

4.2. Associations between SNS addiction and emotion recognition

In general, our findings confirmed that worse performance in emotion recognition predicted

SNS addiction. In particular, the conflict subtest of SMAS was associated with both positive

and negative emotion recognition; additionally, the SMAS total score had a positive

relationship with emotion recognition. Conflict in SNS addiction refers to the disruption in
social relationships (e.g. disregard for their family members and friends) and diminished daily

functioning (e.g. lower enthusiasm for leisure activities, hobbies, exercise, and job) because

of the SNS (Andreassen, 2015). The recognition of emotions is a crucial social tool for

establishing congruent communication between individuals. Misinterpretation or failure in

identifying these social cues might result in undesirable conflicts in social relationships (Blair,

2003). We may infer that disabilities in the accurate recognition of both positive and negative

emotions are experienced by SNS addicts who have difficulties in interpersonal relationships.

Although SNS addicts spend a majority of their time on SNS seeking new connections, they

withdraw themselves from social communication in real life. In addition, the inaccuracy in

identifying others‟ emotions might contribute to the vulnerability to SNS addiction.

4.3. Predictors for discriminating individuals with SNS addiction from the non-addict

group

The binary logistic regression analyses revealed that poorer performance in recognizing

negative emotions successfully predicted SNS addiction. In other words, failure in the

accurate identification of negative emotions might contribute to the susceptibility to SNS

addiction. However, our study was the first attempt to evaluate emotion recognition in SNS

addiction, and our finding relating to a particular deficit for negative facial expressions was in

line with studies of individuals with other addictions rather than SNS addiction (Bayrakçı et

al., 2015; Chen et al., 2017; Craparo et al., 2016; Frigerio et al., 2002; Ge et al., 2017; Karaer

and Akdemir, 2019). This association can be explained by the developmental process.

Emotions, whether positive, negative, or neutral, play a central role in acquiring life-long,

adaptive strategies to cope with environment (Demos, 1986). Despite the necessity of all

emotions, distress, which plays an inevitable role in the developmental task of learning to

tolerate, resist and modulate the discomfort of negative affect, is much more related with

negative emotions. Thus, negative emotions act as a catalyst to develop immature coping
abilities and they become more salient in psychological well-being relative to other emotion

types (Kopp, 1989). The lack of capability in accurately identifying negative emotions might

cause conflicts in interpersonal relationships due to insufficient coping mechanisms. Such

individuals might avoid taking part in face-to-face relationships and might also contribute to

their reliance on the virtual ambiance of SNS.

The present study has some limitations to be noted. First, the mental status of the participants

was not evaluated by a structured clinical interview and the classification of individuals

according to their SNS addiction was done using a self-report SNS addiction questionnaire.

Despite our results being supported by previous views on the relationship between poor

emotion recognition and addiction, we cannot infer a robust causality between SNS addiction

and emotion recognition due to the correlational nature of our study. There is a need for

longitudinal studies which can monitor an individual‟s status in assessed variables at various

time points in order to establish this potential link.

Our findings provide preliminary evidence for emotion recognition deficits in SNS addiction.

Despite great effort in understanding the aetiology of SNS addiction, studies documenting

therapeutic interventions for it are sparse (Andreassen, 2015). Indeed, emotion recognition

deficits are considered as therapeutic targets in cognitive behavioural therapies for internet

addiction (Du et al., 2010; Young, 2007). Therefore, studies that provide evidence for the

connection between emotion recognition deficits and SNS addiction can contribute to the

development of novel intervention methods for these specific deficits in order to diminish the

disruptive effects of SNS addiction.

Declaration of interest

There are no conflicts of interest between authors.

Acknowledgments
All of the authors would like to thank Utkun Aydın and Fikret Poyraz Çökmüş for their

supports in data collection and proofreading.

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 Table 1: Sociodemographic features of the groups with and without SNS addiction.

Group
SNS Addicts (n=197) Non-addicts (n=120) Stats.
Mean S.D. Count (%) Mean S.D. Count (%)

Age 21.11 1.92 21.74 2.25 t(315)=2.651, p<0.01

Gender
Male 82(41%) 57(48%) χ2(1)=1.04, p=0.30
Female 115(59%) 63(52%)

Education(years) 14.27 1.80 15.38 10.64 t(315)=1.430, p=0.15

Marital status
Married 2(1%) 1(1%) χ2(2)=1.76, p=0.62
Has relationship 62(31%) 45(38%)
No relationship 132(68%) 74(61%)

Economical status
Better 5(2%) 4 (3%) χ2(2)=0.17, p=0.91
Moderate 86(44%) 52(43%)
Worse 106 (54%) 64 (54%)

Current location
City center 153(77%) 95(79%) χ2(1)=0.09, p=0.75
Not city center 44(23%) 25(21%)

Present tobacco use 46 (23%) 28 (23%) χ2(1)=0.69, p=0.70

Present alcohol use 4 (2%) 1 (1%) χ2(1)=0.75, p=0.68

Internet usage (hour/day) 1.98 0.76 1.51 0.88 t(315)=-5.029, p<0.01

Social media usage (hour/day) 1.60 0.74 0.83 0.71 t(315)=-9.066, p<0.01

Social media usage (year) 1.85 0.85 1.65 0.99 t(315)=-1.835, p=0.06

Social account check (times) 1.75 1.21 0.85 0.98 t(315)=-6.721, p<0.01
Table 2. Group comparison of SMAS and RMET subtests showing means and the results from a MANCOVA analysis.

Group
SNS Addicts (n=197) Non-addicts (n=120) Stats.
Mean S.D. Mean S.D. F Sig. ηp2

SMAS-O 37.38 7.90 21.11 5.89 377.23 <0.001 0.54

SMAS-MM 14.23 4.34 8.62 3.43 137.88 <0.001 0.30

SMAS-R 12.60 6.39 6.37 1.90 102.79 <0.001 0.24

SMAS-C 40.39 13.07 22.77 3.69 206.55 <0.001 0.39

SMAS-total 104.60 24.27 58.89 9.87 379.05 <0.001 0.55

RMET-pos 5.48 1.22 5.65 1.02 1.62 0.20 0.01

RMET-neg 7.72 1.77 8.18 1.63 5.31 0.02 0.17

RMET-neutr 10.04 2.19 10.28 1.97 1.69 0.19 0.02

RMET-total 22.57 3.60 23.25 3.27 3.74 0.05 0.02

Notes for table 2: RMET-pos: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -positive emotions, RMET-neg: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -negative emotions,
RMET-neutr: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -neutral emotions, SMAS-O: Social Media Addiction Scale-occupation subtest, SMAS-MM:Social Media
Addiction Scale-mood modification subtest, SMAS-R: Social Media Addiction Scale-relapse subtest, SMAS-C: Social Media Addiction Scale-conflict subtest.
*Age variable was treated as covariate.
 Table 3. The correlations between SMAS and RMET in the SNS addicts.

RMET-pos RMET-neg RMET-neutr RMET-total

SMAS-O 0.022 0.054 0.082 0.063
SMAS-MM -0.051 0.052 -0.030 -0.009
SMAS-R -0.129 -0.130 0.001 -0.088
SMAS-C -0.210** -0.149* -0.058 -0.202**
SMAS-Total -0.150* -0.088 -0.010 -0.113

Notes for table 3: RMET-pos: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -positive emotions, RMET-neg: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -negative emotions,
RMET-neutr: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -neutral emotions, SMAS-O: Social Media Addiction Scale-occupation subtest, SMAS-MM:Social Media
Addiction Scale-mood modification subtest, SMAS-R: Social Media Addiction Scale-relapse subtest, SMAS-C: Social Media Addiction Scale-conflict subtest.

*p<0.05, **p<0.01
Table 4: The predictor variables of SNS addiction

Dependent variable Predictors  r R2

SMAS-C RMET-pos -2.01 -2.66** 0.05

RMET-neg -0.08 -0.11*

SMAS-total RMET-pos -2.95 -0.15* 0.02

Notes for table 4: RMET-pos: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -positive emotions, RMET-neg: The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test -negative emotions,
SMAS-C: Social Media Addiction Scale-conflict subtest.

*p<0.05, **p<0.01