Researchers have found why people are obsessed with Facebook and its news feed

People keep visiting Facebook to make themselves feel better and then fall into a "cycle of self-regulatory failure"

Scientists may have finally uncovered why people are always consistently checking and refreshing their Facebook feed, the Independent reports.

According to the new research, irrespective of how you feel, going on Facebook and checking the news feed makes you feel good.

Apparently even looking at something related to Facebook, like the logo or the feed, can be enough to provide good pleasure.



The desire to repeat that pleasure keeps people logging on, the researchers found, and craving to check it can be triggered when people are not logged in as well. Eventually, when people decide to leave Facebook, they miss that pleasure. A sense of guilt is formed, and the people visit the website again to make themselves feel better.

Researchers said that behaviour was a "cycle of self-regulatory failure" that keeps people logging on, then logging off, then logging back on again. And the guilt over failing to actually cut out social media is damaging to the psyche, according to Michigan State University's Allison Eden, who conducted the study.

The researchers also said that it would be best for people to force themselves to remove Facebook entirely, including the Facebook app that everyone has on their phones. "Media, including social media, is one of the most commonly failed goals to regulate," Eden said. "People try to regulate themselves and they really have difficulty with it."

The researchers conducted two studies, looking at people who use Facebook a lot and people who use it less. In the first study, people were asked to look either at something related to Facebook – like its logo – or something else entirely, and then at a Chinese symbol. They were then told to say whether the symbol was pleasant or unpleasant.



Heavy Facebook users who had looked at an image related to the site were far more likely to say that the Chinese symbol was pleasant. "People are learning this reward feeling when they get to Facebook," she said. "What we show with this study is that even with something as simple as the Facebook logo, seeing the Facebook wall of a friend or seeing anything associated with Facebook is enough to bring that positive association back."

In the second study, people were asked to measure their cravings for Facebook. They found that people often gave into the temptation to use Facebook and then fell into the cycle of failure that can damage their psyche.