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ABSTRACT
This study examines how individuals across income classes encountered payday lenders’ appeals online and what their smartphone use reveals about their psychological reactions to these messages. We utilized novel Screenomics data, comprehensive sequences of screenshots (N = 13,498,584) collected every 5 seconds from the smartphones of lower-income and higher-income adults (N = 65) in U.S. metropolitan areas for 2 months. While examining a person’s everyday smartphone use, we observed 103 natural exposures to advertisements of payday lenders who had in the past generated consumer complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We describe how individuals encountered payday loan ads through various digital channels despite the ad bans of major technology companies. We employed a quasi-experimental design to test for differences in participant actions immediately before and after ad exposure. Multilevel analysis results show that exposure to payday loan ads led to notable changes in the lower-income individuals’ smartphone use. Directly after seeing the ads, the lower-income individuals engaged with content that contained fewer future-oriented words, switched between applications more frequently, and avoided content that evoked negative emotions. Such effects were especially pronounced among the lower-income individuals who lacked the support of social safety nets, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) and unemployment benefits. In contrast, there were no changes noted in smartphone use among the lower-income individuals receiving social safety net assistance and higher-income individuals. These findings highlight the nuanced yet impactful psychological consequences of digital experiences, an underexplored aspect of digital inequalities.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Jihye Lee
Jihye Lee (Ph.D., Stanford University) is an Assistant Professor in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines biases and inequities in algorithmically mediated digital content, focusing on the experiences of disadvantaged individuals.
James T. Hamilton
James T. Hamilton (Ph.D., Harvard University) is the Hearst Professor of Communication and Director of the Journalism Program at Stanford. His books on media markets and information provision include All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News (2004) and Democracy's Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism (2016).
Nilam Ram
Nilam Ram (Ph.D., University of Virginia) is a Professor in the Departments of Communication and Psychology at Stanford University. Ram studies the dynamic interplay between psychological and media processes and how they change from moment-to-moment and across the life span.
Katherine Roehrick
Katherine Roehrick is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. Roehrick uses computational and linguistic analyses to study human-computer interaction and digital media.
Byron Reeves
Byron Reeves (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is the Paul C. Edwards Professor of Communication at Stanford University. His research examines the psychological processing of media, with an emphasis on social and emotional responses to interactive technology. He is the co-author of The Media Equation: How People Respond to Computers, Television and New Media Like Real People and Places.