Simone Schnall

When asked to draw a scientist, school-age kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women, according to a study from 2018. Read more on #InternationalWomensDay: scim.ag/3NeF0Hs

As we all comb through Meta's internal docs, released via the lawsuits, it's fun to discover that @jean_twenge and I were getting under Meta's skin by 2019. See the screenshot below, from: drive.google.com/file/d/1sWRm1R… They then ran their own RCT to show that Jean and I were wrong, but oops, they found that when people were randomly assigned to quit Insta or FB for a week, their mental health improved. They called it "Project Mercury." It is study 6.2 at metasinternalresearch.org They found that those who stopped using Facebook for a week "reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison" Their own researchers (all of whom had Ph.Ds) concluded that: “the Nielsen study does show causal impact on social comparison.” So whenever you hear the Meta talking point that the evidence is "just correlational," or that there is "no evidence of causality," know that this is not true, and they have known it's not true since 2019. Please check out the other 30 internal Meta studies we found and catalogued at metasinternalresearch.org Also, there is SO MUCH additional academic research demonstrating causality since 2019: osf.io/xsje9/files/hm…

Today at 2pm, my talk our work about cognitive effects of engaging with beautiful art. @SPSPnews Punch line: Aesthetic appreciation leads to abstract thinking. Join us in Room E353C!

At 2pm today: "Honoring Jerry Clore: Affect-as-Information and Beyond", Room E353C @SPSPnews A tribute to Gerald L. Clore's many contributions to studying affect-as-information. With Jeff Huntsinger, Linda Isbell, Michael Robinson and me.

@Oliver_S_Curry @EmmanuelMacron @JonHaidt @Ran_BarziLab You mean to fix bullying, lack of family support and school work dissatisfaction? How exactly?

@SimoneSchnall @EmmanuelMacron @JonHaidt @Ran_BarziLab Meanwhile, it seems that there are lots of other better ways to actually help kids x.com/Oliver_S_Curry…

An essential conversation with @JonHaidt, a scientist and whistleblower who is a leading voice on regulating social networks and the author of "Anxious Generation". ​ Together, we are fighting a decisive battle: taking back control from social networks, algorithms and platforms, and protecting our children and teenagers. I have made a commitment: France will lead the way.

@Oliver_S_Curry @EmmanuelMacron @JonHaidt @Ran_BarziLab Even a small effect can have massive real-life implications because depression can lead to self-harm or even suicide. And sure, it's not causal, but how long do we want to wait for causal evidence? This is not just a scientific question -- it's about billions of kids, right now.

@SimoneSchnall @EmmanuelMacron @JonHaidt @Ran_BarziLab Ok, but the relationships here are very small (r ≈ 0.10; depression: r ≈ 0.07), and anyway this is correlational data (they weren't given phones at random), so we don't know what causes what, or whether the relationship is because of some other factor x.com/Oliver_S_Curry…

@Oliver_S_Curry @EmmanuelMacron @JonHaidt A more recent analysis (2026) of the same ABCD data *does* find an effect on depression. Clever study by @Ran_BarziLab compared kids who have a smartphone (n = 6739) vs. who don't (n = 3849), and what happens when they get a phone later. Paper here: tinyurl.com/ehcuyzyy

@EmmanuelMacron @JonHaidt x.com/oliver_s_curry…

Parasocial named Cambridge Dictionary word of the year msn.com/en-za/news/oth…

Social media companies have researched the negative effects on teen mental health for years, but lied about their findings. Bravo, @JonHaidt and team for compiling all the evidence from whistleblowers, court cases etc. on this website: metasinternalresearch.org

There is *tons* of evidence of social media harming young people so let's once and for all do whatever we can to protect them. Simply not good enough to keep saying "more data is needed."

@SimoneSchnall I really enjoyed this video and listen to you carefully specially the part when you said that every minute or hour we spent in para social will cost us a minute or hour in real life relationships and the should always be our priority that helped me a lot professor so thank you !!

In a one-sided relationship with an AI chatbot? Here's 2025's Word of the Year cnb.cx/4oUyfbk

youtube.com/watch?v=EVfOQq… @CambridgeWords @IShowSpeedHQ

Cambridge Dictionary kürt „parasozial“ zum Wort des Jahres via @sz sz.de/dpa.urn-newsml…

'Parasocial' Crowned Cambridge Dictionary Word Of 2025: What It Means ndtv.com/world-news/par…

Parasocial, how you may have felt after Taylor Swift's engagement, is Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year cbsn.ws/4rd7u3F

Cambridge Dictionary (@CambridgeWords) has named 'parasocial' as the Word of the Year for 2025 👇

The Cambridge Dictionary #WordOfTheYear2025 is … 🥁   "parasocial" (adjective) 🏆 Find out more about #Parasocial: cambrid.ge/47ePa1Z #Parasocial #CambridgeWOTY #WordOfTheYear2025 #CambridgeDictionary