Mental Health

Women's Wellbeing Boosted by Tweeting Sexism

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Jan 30, 2015 06:51 PM EST

Announcing sexism on social media may help boost female wellbeing, according to a new study.

According to researchers from Wilfrid Laurier University, publically speaking out against sexism improves women's wellbeing because it gives them a chance to express themselves in ways that have the potential to make a difference.

"We know women can be badly affected by experiences of sexism and that responding publically can be stressful and risky. This study examined whether using Twitter to respond to sexism could be done in a public way without any negative effects to their wellbeing," researcher Dr. Mindi Foster said in a news release.

The latest study involved 93 female undergrads that were randomly assigned to one of three conditions over a three-day period. One condition required participants to tweet publically, the second condition required participants to tweet privately and the third condition received no instructions.

After analyzing tweets for linguistic and emotional content as well as mood questionnaires, researchers found that women who tweeted publically showed feelings of increased wellbeing by the third day.

"We know that popular online campaigns such as EverydaySexism have empowered women to speak out and share their experiences. However, this study demonstrates how tweeting publically has the potential to improve women's wellbeing," Foster concluded. "More research is required to understand whether this form of collective action has any further health benefits."

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