American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
The Effect of Deactivating Facebook and Instagram on Users' Emotional State
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 188–207)
Abstract
We estimate the effect of social media deactivation on users' emotional state in two large randomized experiments before the 2020 US election. People who deactivated Facebook for the six weeks before the election reported a 0.060 standard deviation improvement in an index of happiness, depression, and anxiety, relative to controls who deactivated for just the first of those six weeks. People who deactivated Instagram for those six weeks reported a 0.041 standard deviation improvement relative to controls. Exploratory analysis suggests that the Facebook effect is driven by people over 35, while the Instagram effect is driven by women under 25.Citation
Allcott, Hunt, Matthew Gentzkow, Benjamin Wittenbrink, Winter Mason, Arjun Wilkins, Natalie Jomini Stroud, Joshua A. Tucker, and US 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study Collective. 2026. "The Effect of Deactivating Facebook and Instagram on Users' Emotional State." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 18 (4): 188–207. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20240806Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- L82 Entertainment; Media