Arts and Humanities
The characters you type over and over again on your digital devices can affect your mental health more than you might expect.
A new research study from UBC and New York University in Shanghai has found that self-affirming typed passwords, such as “MusicCalmsMeDown@123,” can offer a mental health boost.
Research published in internet interventions focused on how such login codes affected the well-being of first-year sexual minority college students at UBC and NYU Shanghai in coping with sexual orientation microaggressions, including homophobic slurs, during the first six weeks of the study. college.
“We were thinking, with self-asserting passwords, people can remember what’s important to them every time they log on to their laptops or computers,” says lead author Dr. Gu Li (he / he), assistant professor of psychology at NYU Shanghai, who first began the study in 2019 while at UBC.
In this way, a password could be used as a timely “reinforcement” for a writing-based intervention, explains Dr. Li, and help mitigate a stressful situation and the resulting decline in psychological well-being.
The research team sampled 296 students, making the study one of the largest psychological interventions on people from sexual minorities. The first cohort focused on UBC students in 2019 and was expanded the following year to include students from Shanghai.
Participants were randomly assigned to complete a self-affirming writing exercise and create a self-affirming computer password to use for six weeks, or complete a control writing exercise and create a control computer password.
Students who used their self-asserting passwords less than five times a day did not see any benefit. However, those who used them more often experienced smaller declines in psychological well-being over the study period.
Sexual minority students who used control passwords that did not contain self-assertion showed a decrease in psychological well-being during the first few months of college.
These results are promising, says co-author Dr. Frances Chen (She she), associate professor, department of psychology at UBC.
“I think it works on one of the basic principles of trying to change people’s behavior or thought processes: that you really have to make it as simple as possible,” notes Dr. Chen.
“All of us are busy. We all have a million things going on in our lives, so asking people to add a new habit to their daily routine may not be realistic for everyone.”
She adds: “We all use passwords anyway. It is a relatively inexpensive and low-effort change.”
Many participants asked to keep their chosen self-assertion passwords even after the research period ended, Dr. Li noted.
“Most of us are familiar with how immunization ‘boosters’ protect our physical health. Psychological reinforcers work in a similar way. They can help protect our mental health when we encounter threats,” said Dr. Chen.
The research finding highlights opportunities for other types of psychological interventions that use passwords, Dr. Li said.
Further study could reveal more far-reaching applications. For example, computer passwords could be used for gratitude interventions to remind people to be thankful for people and things in life.
In the future, Dr. Li would like to expand his research and test the method in other countries where disadvantaged groups have less access to mental health care.
“The findings of this study provide a boost for timely, low-cost, low-cost intervention to ease college students’ transition to college, perhaps especially for those who are under stress but do not have the same access to health services. mental health”.
Interview Language(s): English, Mandarin (Dr. Li)
