The Power of ‘Likes’: Exploring X/Twitter Reward Sensitivity and its Associations with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression, and Anxiety

Abstract

Social media is a progressively unbridled force of social influence. As the usage, variety of platforms, and influence of social media sites rise, the impact of social media on the mental health of its users becomes of growing significance and concern. However, present research has predominantly focused on the influence of social media on mental health without investigating the bidirectional aspect of this relationship: how pre-existing mental health concerns affect social media usage. Research that has begun to investigate this has relied largely on self-reported usage data or focused primarily on language use. Moreover, this research has largely overlooked a crucial element of social media use: the social reward, in the form of likes, comments, and shares. Research suggests that people with mental illness or neurodivergence respond differentially to reward. Here, we aim to analyze and quantify how ADHD symptoms, disentangled from symptoms of depression and anxiety, moderate user activity patterns and sensitivity to reward on social media. Drawing on reinforcement learning theory, sensitivity to reward is conceptualized as the extent to which the receipt of social reward in the form of likes leads to more future posting. Participants were asked to report their diagnoses, symptom severity, and perceived social media engagement, and subsequently to donate their public X/Twitter data. We hypothesized that users with ADHD would post more frequently, exhibit a higher sensitivity to reward, and self-report higher usage, sensitivity, and addiction to social media. Our results showed that posting frequency and reward sensitivity were only marginally associated with ADHD. However, reward sensitivity was positively associated with depression and age, and negatively associated with anxiety. Self-reported measures of social media usage were only marginally associated with ADHD, however, self-reported social media reward sensitivity and addiction were significantly associated with both ADHD and age. These results suggest that individuals with depression, anxiety, and of older age are particularly sensitive to likes on social media. By contrast, individuals with symptoms of ADHD self-report more sensitivity to likes and problematic social media usage despite not being significantly more sensitive behaviorally, whereas older individuals self-perceive less problematic social media usage despite being significantly more sensitive behaviorally. These findings reveal the additional risk that social media may pose for people with pre-existing mental health concerns and of older age, as well as the importance of the inclusion of behavioral data in analyses of social media.