Dar Meshi
Associate Professor | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Dar Meshi investigates social media use, often focusing on maladaptive, problematic social media use.
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Biography
Dar Meshi investigates social media use, often focusing on maladaptive, problematic social media use. Social media platforms are a relatively new phenomenon, but they tap into social cognitive processes that have been hardwired into our brains over years of evolution. For example, humans are drawn to positive, rewarding social information, such as “likes” on social media. These social rewards act as reinforcers, bringing people back to social media sites repeatedly and for significant durations of time. Importantly, some individuals use social media so much that they experience an impairment in daily functioning and psychological distress, similar to substance use and other behavioral addictive disorders. Dar's research program focuses on the brain and behavior of both adults and adolescents to better understand this problematic social media use. To answer his research questions, he conducts behavioral experiments both in the lab and online. He also conducts neuroimaging experiments with an MRI scanner. Ultimately, with the knowledge gained by this research, Dar hopes to help individuals who display problematic social media use, as well as contribute to a better understanding of socially motivated human behavior.
Dar Meshi earned his B.S. in biology from the University of California at Los Angeles, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York. After his Ph.D., Dar spent some time in New York working at advertising agencies like Ogilvy and Mather. Dar then returned to academia, working as a postdoctoral scientist at Brown University and Freie Universität Berlin.
Industry Expertise (3)
Social Media
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (4)
FMRI
Social Decisions
Social media use
Individual Differences
Education (2)
Columbia University: Ph.D., Biological Sciences (Neuroscience) 2006
University of California at Los Angeles: B.S., Biology 1997
Links (4)
News (3)
Get Happy: The Science Of Emotions And How To Harness Them For Happiness
Forbes online
2021-05-31
It’s been 16 months of turmoil and chances are you’ve had plenty of emotions roiling within. From frustration, grief or anxiety to relief, elation or anticipation, you’ve likely felt a range of sentiments throughout the pandemic—and this will continue.
Feeling Down? Support Via Social Media May Not Be Enough
US News and World Report online
2021-05-10
"We wanted to see if the social support provided over social media was associated with better mental health," said study leader Dar Meshi. He is an assistant professor of advertising and public relations at Michigan State University, in East Lansing.
3 Reasons Real-Life Social Support Is Best for Mental Health
Psychology Today online
2021-05-09
Although using social media for support during difficult times doesn't appear to impact mental health negatively, new research suggests that it doesn't have a positive effect, either. A recent study (Meshi & Ellithorpe, 2021) compared the pros and cons of social support using real-life contacts versus social media platforms. Their findings were published online on April 10 in the peer-reviewed journal Addictive Behaviors.
Journal Articles (5)
Problematic Social Media Use and Impulsivity
Current Addiction Reports2023 In this article, we review and integrate the extant literature on problematic social media use (PSMU) and impulsivity. We present this literature organized by methodology, in which researchers used surveys or behavioral tasks to measure either general impulsivity or specific facets of impulsivity.
Problematic video gaming is associated with poor sleep quality, diet quality, and personal hygiene.
Psychology of Popular Media2023 Problematic gamers may focus on game-play so much that they forego regular daily activities in favor of more game time, leading to health impairments. Because problematic gamers often desire to return to the game as quickly as possible, they are known to make myopic choices that favor short-term benefits at the cost of long-term gains.
Children's screentime is associated with reduced brain activation during an inhibitory control task: A pilot EEG study
Frontiers in Cognition2023 Children's screentime has been linked with a variety of behavioral consequences, including decreased inhibitory control. While children's screentime is associated with distinct functional brain differences, the links between screentime and neural markers of inhibitory control are unknown.
Media neuroscience on a shoestring: Examining electrocortical responses to visual stimuli via mobile EEG.
Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications2023 Event-related potentials (ERPs) capture neural responses to media stimuli with a split-second resolution, opening the door to examining how attention modulates the reception process. However, the relatively high cost and difficulty of incorporating ERP methods have prevented broader adoption.
Category-specific memory encoding in the medial temporal lobe and beyond: the role of reward
Learning & Memory2022 The medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus (HC), perirhinal cortex (PRC), and parahippocampal cortex (PHC), is central to memory formation. Reward enhances memory through interplay between the HC and substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SNVTA).
