The research: Researchers from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, had 26 female undergraduates take a test that measured their social anxiety. A week later, after being hooked up to equipment that measured their skin’s electrical conductivity (a measure of physiological arousal), the participants were split into four groups: one group looked at the Facebook profile of a study collaborator before seeing her in person; another saw the collaborator first and then viewed her Facebook profile; one group only looked at the Facebook profile; and the last group only saw the collaborator in person. The results? Those who looked at the Facebook profile before seeing the person experienced higher arousal scores, particularly those with mild social anxiety. What it means: While researchers can’t say for sure that arousal translates to anxiety, the fact that scores increased the most among socially anxious people leads them to believe that in this case, arousal was a negative thing (levels of arousal would have dropped if checking out the pictures made subjects more relaxed). The researchers believe that the unhealthy social comparisons Facebook is known to cause could be to blame. The bottom line: Unless you have a really good reason to do some online snooping, avoid it. “Previous research has shown that online communication, like in chat rooms, can lower social anxiety,” says Shannon Rauch, lead study author and assistant professor of psychology at Benedictine. “But with Facebook, people just go on and browse around, and we start to ruminate on what we see, which can increase our anxiety.” More from Prevention: How Facebook Turns You Into A Stalker
