Michelle Drouin

Michelle Drouin is an American researcher who focuses on psychological issues dealing with social media and communications technology. Drouin is associate professor of psychology at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Michelle Drouin
Dr. Michelle Drouin, 2014
Born	(1974-02-26) February 26, 1974 (age 51) Chicago Heights, Illinois, US
Alma mater	University of Oxford, 2004 (D.Phil., Experimental Psychology); Cornell University, 1996 (B.A., Psychology)
Occupation	Associate Professor of Psychology, Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne
Website	drmichelledrouin.com

Research

Drouin has studied deception during sexting,^[1] and how texting and sexting affect attachment in relationships between college students,^[2] as well as between adult relationships.^[3] She found correlations between coercive sexting and mental health problems,^[4] as well as links between Internet trolling and sadism.^[5][6] She described how people sometimes use social media to maintain back-burner relationships to keep alive connections to possible future romantic partners.^[7][8] Much of her research focuses on social media sites such as Facebook; for example, she found that some people make new romantic connections by friending people on Facebook.^[9] She studied the issue of phantom vibrations experienced by many cell phone users in which a phone seems to vibrate but doesn't; a study she conducted found that 89% of students experienced a phantom vibration at least once every two weeks.^[10][11] She found that people were more likely to experience phantom vibrations if they expected to react emotionally to incoming communications.^[12] Her research found that young adults generally do not support the practice of employers using social media when making hiring decisions.^[13]