The social impact of psychological research on shared well-being on social networks

The current trend for evaluating research is to measure the social benefits provided by its findings, thus considering the social impact they achieve by applying scientific evidence and ensuring that this leads to better quality and living conditions for people. Currently, psychology has various scientific evidence showing that “well-being” has a direct impact on people’s health.

the study The social impact of psychological research on shared well-being in social mediaThis publication in Frontiers in Psychology shows how psychology contributes to social influence by analyzing one of its specific areas, the investigation of well-being measured through the Social Influence in Social Media (SISM) methodology. So, we first review the main contributions of well-being research from a psychological perspective in line with one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all people at all ages) and examine how social networks play a crucial role in attracting citizens’ interest in It is about the improvements that science brings to society. Second, the results extracted are presented by applying the SISM methodology to identify the exchange in social networks of social impact evidence that captured the attention of citizens, selecting 10 competitive projects on well-being research or related aspects that are present on social networks. The research concludes that all outcomes are linked to Sustainable Development Goal 3 “Health and well-being for all people” and have already achieved social impact. Other contributions are also included such as:

• The application of SISM to the analysis of well-being research emphasizes that this type of research produces evidence of social influence that is shared on social networks.
• The study obtained evidence of a real social impact, meaning that it actually contributes to improving people’s lives.
• The main contributions identified are how the quality of relationships has a direct impact on the quality of health across the lifespan and that engagement in meaningful social and intellectual interactions supports brain health.
• A positive self-evaluation of one’s mental health promotes future mental health, so this is an important variable for treatments in this area.
• This technology is used to prevent mental health problems, for example through earlier detection of depression and more accurate detection of mental problems.

This study showed that SISM methodology contributes to generating evidence about the social impact of research on well-being, demonstrating how its findings contribute to improving people’s lives.