Research
Social Media & Psychological Well-Being
I investigate how mindsets of social media as an "empowering tool" or "harmful addictions" affect behavior, social connection, and psychological distress.
Developing Digital Resilience to Disinformation Threats
I work with communities of color to teach youth to recognize and respond to disinformation and misinformation on social media.
Understanding Youth Communities
I study youth communities from adolescence to young adulthood, with an emphasis on understanding the experiences of Gen Z and their engagement with technology.
Psychologically Wise Interventions for Adaptive Technology Use
I design scalable interventions that aim to aim to improve outcomes by changing how people think about and engage with social technologies like social media and smartphones.
Education
Ph.D., Communication, Stanford University
September 2019 - June 2024 (Expected)
I am a 3rd year doctoral candidate studying media psychology. I work in the Social Media Lab with Dr. Jeffrey Hancock. My research is supported by the Stanford Social Impact Labs Collaborative Research Fellowship, Stanford Graduate Public Service Fellowship, and the Stanford Leaders in Inclusive Teaching Fellowship. My projects are supported by grants from the Stanford Center for Philanthropy and Civil Service and the Stanford School of Medicine Spectrum Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Education.
M.A., Media Psychology, Stanford Univeresity
September 2019 - September 2021
B.A., Psychology and Communication, Stanford University
September 2015 - June 2019
In my undergraduate career, I studied the intersection of social psychology and technology. I served as a research assistant in the Social Media Lab, Culture and Emotion Lab, and the Post-Millennial Project at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. My undergraduate thesis on "Social Media Mindsets: The Impact of Implicit Theories of Social Media Use on Psychological Well-Being" received the Stanford Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.
Publications
CSCW (Under review)
Detecting Deceptive Media Links Online: The Impact of Age, Self-Efficacy, and Selection Strategies on Accuracy
Deceptive media links trick users into clicking on them by employing dark patterns. We examine the role of participant age, self-efficacy with technology, and past experience with similar websites on link selection accuracy. This study extends previous work on digital deception to examine deceptive media links and identifies individual-level factors and strategies related to better and worse detection accuracy, with implications for designing interventions to improve users’ abilities to identify and resist dark patterns.
Lee, A.Y., Robison, M., & Hancock, J. (under review). Detecting deceptive media links online: The impact of age, self-efficacy, and selection strategies on accuracy.
Frontiers of Psychology (July 2021)
Identifying silver linings with computational methods in the COVID-19 pandemic
Finding ways to support individuals’ mental health has been particularly difficult during COVID-19. An opportunity for intervention to protect individuals’ health & well-being is to identify the existing sources of consolation and hope that have helped people persevere through the early days of the pandemic. In this paper, we identified positive aspects, or “silver linings,” that people experienced during the COVID-19 crisis using computational natural language processing methods and qualitative thematic content analysis.
Lee, A.Y.*, Lossio-Ventura*, J.A., Hancock, J., Linos, N., & Linos, E. (accepted, in press). Frontiers of Psychology: Positive Psychology.
Social Media + Society (July 2021)
The Role of Subjective Construals on Reporting and Reasoning About Social Media Use
We investigated how people self-report the time they spend on social media and made sense of its role in their lives. We found people's perceptions of social media revolved around two key dimensions of valence ("Is social media enhancing or harmful for me?") and agency ("Am I in control of social media or is it exerting control over me?"). We discuss these as social media mindsets.
Lee, A.Y., Katz, R., & Hancock, J. (2021). The role of subjective construals on reporting and reasoning about social media use. Social Media & Society.
Journal of Medical Internet Research : Human Factors (April 2021)
Age-Related Differences in Experiences with Social Distancing at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Computational and Content Analytic Investigation of Natural Language
The aim of this study was to examine how people of different ages (1) experienced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) their respective rates and reasons for compliance or noncompliance with social distancing and isolation health guidance.
Moore, R., Lee, A.Y., Hancock, J., Linos, E., & Halley, M. (2021). Age-related differences in experiences with social distancing early in the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Journal of Medical Internet Research, Human Factors.
Journal of Children and Media (December 2020)
"Bringing You Into the Zoom": The Power of Authentic Engagement in a Time of Crisis in the USA
In the chaos shrouding 2020, students have been tasked with another challenge: finding meaningful connection in an age of virtual classrooms. We draw on Kearsley & Sneiderman’s engagement theory of technology-based teaching and learning into the reality of 2020 by reflecting on the question: How can we help students and educators “Bring you into the Zoom?” How are opportunities for genuine, meaningful connection within the confines of digital space created? We reflect on how three activities (show & tell boxes, personal capstone projects, and deep appreciations) in our teaching helped spark authentic engagement in our digital classrooms – and even moments of joy.
Lee, A.Y., Moskowitz-Sweet, G., Pelavin, E., Rivera, O., & Hancock, J. (2020) Bringing you into the Zoom: The power of authentic engagement in a time of crisis in the USA. Journal of Children and Media.
Social Media + Society (November 2020)
Priming Effects of Social Media Use Scales on Well-Being Outcomes
To understand behavior on social media, researchers have created and validated dozens of scales. These scales tend to result in different conclusions regarding people’s well-being: studies asking about addiction find that social media use is often associated with higher reported depression scores, whereas studies focusing on intensity typically find an association with improved well-being. In this article, we report on two studies that examine priming effects on reported depression for these two types of social media use scales. We examine the possibility that different associations between social media and depression may be caused by the survey design itself, not by underlying differences in depression.
Mieczkowski, H., Lee, A.Y., & Hancock, J. (2020). Priming effects of social media use scales on well-being outcomes. Social Media & Society.
Cogent Education (January 2019)
Jumpstart Program Efficacy: The Impact of Early Childhood Education Achievement Initiatives on Low-Income Children's Literacy, Agency, and Social Development
The Jumpstart program is a national early childhood education program focusing on supporting children’s language skills, literacy, and social-emotional development. The present study examined the impact of Jumpstart programming on the school readiness of low-income preschool children. Analysis of pre- and post-program student outcomes found that children in Jumpstart improved significantly in their language skills, literacy, initiative, and social development.
Yen, S.C., Lee, A.Y. (2019). Jumpstart program efficacy: The impact of early childhood education advancement initiatives on low-income children’s literacy, agency, and social development. Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation.
Journal of Education and Information Technologies (September 2018)
Learning Online, Offline, and In-Between: Comparing Student Academic Outcomes and Course Satisfaction in Face-to-Face, Online, and Blended Teaching Modalities
The purpose of this study was to conduct a three-way comparison of face-to-face, online, and blended teaching modalities in an undergraduate Child Development course to determine if there were differences in student academic outcomes and course satisfaction across modalities. Results indicated that students performed equally well on all three examinations, research paper, and the overall course total grade across three teaching modalities, allaying traditional reservations about online and blended teaching efficacy. A Two-Factor Model identifying Face-to-Face Interaction and Learn on Demand (Flexibility) as factors determining student academic outcomes was proposed.
Yen, S.C., Luo, Y.F., & Lee, A.Y. (2018). Learning online, offline, and in-between: Comparing student academic outcomes and course satisfaction in face-to-face, online, and blended teaching modalities. Journal of Education and Information Technologies.
