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Testing the Casual Impact of Social Media Reduction Around the Globe
Through an social media reduction experiment across 23 countries and the generation of a global dataset, this paper will offer rare causal evidence to inform ongoing debates about the impact of social media and how it varies around the world.
Citation
Rathje, S.*, Asimovic, N.*, Ventura, T.*, Mughal, S., Karsting, H., Robertson, C. E., Barrie, C., The Global Social Media Experiment Team., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (Stage 1 In-Principle Acceptance of Registered Report). Testing the causal impact of social media usage around the globe. Nature. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ujtxa_v1
*co-first authors
Date Posted
Dec 09, 2025
Authors
- Steve Rathje,
- Nejla Ašimović,
- Tiago Ventura,
- Sarah Mughal,
- Hannah Karsting,
- Claire E. Robertson,
- Christopher Barrie,
- Joshua A. Tucker,
- Jay J. Van Bavel
Abstract
More than half of the world’s population uses social media. There is widespread debate among the public, politicians, and academics about social media’s impact on important outcomes, such as intergroup conflict and well-being. However, most prior research on the impact of social media relies on samples from the United States and Western Europe, despite emerging evidence suggesting that the impact of social media is likely to differ across the globe. Building on the results of pilot experiments from three countries (n = 894), we plan to conduct a global field experiment to measure the causal impact of reducing social media usage for two weeks across 23 countries (projected n > 8,000). We will then test how social media reduction influences four main outcomes: news knowledge, exposure to online hostility, intergroup attitudes, and well-being. We will also explore how the effects of social media reduction vary across world regions, focusing on three theoretically-informed country-level moderators: levels of income, inequality, and democracy. This large-scale, high-powered field experiment, and the global dataset resulting from it, will offer rare causal evidence to inform ongoing debates about the impact of social media and how it varies around the world.
Background
While most research conducted on social media focuses on the United States, emerging evidence suggests that social media might play different roles and have different impacts in other contexts (Asimovic et al., 2021; Ghai et al., 2023; Lorenz-Spreen et al., 2022). With social media’s widespread global usage, it is crucial to expand the range of settings in which we study social media. It is also essential to move beyond correlational data and collect causal evidence of the impact of social media across contexts. To address these issues, we are conducting a global field experiment testing the causal effect of social media reduction around the world.
Methodology
We are conducting this global experiment in 23 countries (projected n > 8,000). We will test how temporarily reducing one’s social media screen time (for two weeks) influences four key outcomes: news knowledge, exposure to online hostility, intergroup attitudes, and well-being. We will also explore how the effects of social media reduction vary across world regions, focusing on three theoretically-informed country-level moderators: income level, inequality, and democratic strength. We have recruited a team of hundreds of collaborators around the globe who are helping us adapt materials to their country’s context for this experiment. Pilot experiments were conducted in three countries (n = 894), which helped us refine our methodology and analysis plan. The rest of the data collection will occur throughout 2026.
The Registered Report Format
This experiment is being conducted as a Registered Report. The Registered Report format means that pre-registered analyses are peer reviewed and a paper is provisionally accepted to a journal before any data collection takes place. This format is meant to minimize publication bias and to ensure that peer review focuses on the research questions and methodology rather than the results. This paper has received a Stage 1 In-Principle Acceptance as a Registered Report from the journal Nature (see more here) which means that our analysis, methods, and paper draft have undergone peer review and the paper has been provisionally accepted. Data collection from the 23 countries will occur throughout 2026. After data collection is completed, the paper will undergo Stage 2 re-review at Nature. Stage 2 re-review focuses on factors such as whether the authors adhered to their Stage 1 protocol and whether their interpretations of the results are sound, rather than on the significance or direction of the findings. Our Stage 1 Registered Report is available here.
Secondary Papers
After the data collection is completed, the data will be shared publicly and made available for a number of secondary papers on this topic. Among these secondary papers, we are planning a study in which academics, the general public, and other stakeholders predict the results of this global field experiment, which is why we have redacted pilot data results from our publicly available Stage 1 Registered Report preprint.