Is “Good vibes only” really good? Investigating perceptions of toxic positivity on social media
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12655893 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stacy Siqi Wong (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Aretha L H Wan (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Zijian Lew (0000-0003-1769-7898, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Media & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14614448251396941 |
| OpenAlex | W7117453509 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 31 |
On social media, posting positive content should generate positive emotions via emotional contagion. Yet, emerging discussions regarding toxic positivity (TP) suggest that positivity can backfire, showing the limits of emotional contagion. Through the perspective of neoliberal self-help ideology, this research investigated how people understand and perceive TP. Study 1 found, via focus groups, that social media posts containing TP involve two message characteristics—overgeneralization and commanding words—and two psychological processes—ignoring negativity and perceived poster privilege. Additionally, post ephemerality mitigates the negative effects of TP. Study 2 experimentally tested these findings. It found that the effect of post positivity (low positivity / high positivity / toxic positivity message characteristics) on post liking was mediated by ignoring negativity and perceived privilege . However, ephemerality did not moderate the aforementioned mediation relationships. Therefore, the concepts associated with TP—overgeneralization, commanding words, ignoring negativity, and perceived privilege—can be understood as boundary conditions for online emotional contagion
Focus (optics · Focus group · Media content · Mediation · Negativity effect · Perception · Perspective (graphical · Social media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Influence and Health · Mental Health via Writing
Confidence Culture
Neoliberalism can reduce well‐being by promoting a sense of social disconnection, competition, and loneliness
Digital Emotion Contagion
Development of a measure of experiential avoidance
Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks
Sharing the small moments
Understanding the social effects of emotion regulation
Social Media Use in Organizations
Norms of online expressions of emotion
Toxic positivity intentions
Social Defences and Twenty‐first Century Organizations
Charting platform capitalism
"Seminar on "The Purloined Letter
A Case-Study in the Functioning of Social Systems as a Defence against Anxiety
Toxic positivity on social media
Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes
Politeness
Experiencing Algorithms
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |