Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Tonya M. Buchanan

Second Committee Member

Joshua Buchanan

Third Committee Member

Mary Radeke

Abstract

The use of social media platforms to share, view, and communicate information is now ubiquitous (Crockett, 2017). Given the prevalence of problematic content found on social media (e.g., prejudice, misinformation), this research examines how accurately people predict their responses to such content. Kawakami et al. (2009) found that individuals overestimate their emotional distress and behavior in response to discriminatory actions (i.e., racism) in-person predicting they would be more upset, and more likely to reject a racist confederate than individuals who experienced the incident actually were. In the current research, we built upon the work of Kawakami et al. (2009) to examine affective forecasting in response to discriminatory content (i.e., dehumanization) on social media through a 2 (dehumanizing language: absent vs present) x 2 (role: experiencer vs forecaster) between-subjects design. Participants assigned to the experiencer condition read a brief online article about increased U.S. immigration, followed by X users’ comments (with or without dehumanizing language) and completed the PANAS to assess current affect. Participants assigned to the forecaster role were asked to imagine encountering such online content (along with a brief explanation of the article and comments on X) and predicted how they would feel if they had encountered the content. Both forecasters and experiencers were asked to rate their likelihood of engagement with (i.e., reporting) the content. Overall, participants showed a higher level of negative affect when encountering dehumanizing content and were more likely to report the post (vs those in the non-dehumanizing condition), however, no forecasting errors emerged. In addition, there were no significant interactions between content and role on participants’ negative affect or engagement decisions.

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