Like counts: why OurDot’s hearts are private
Public numbers turn sharing into a scoreboard. Research on teens shows likes engage the brain's reward system and shape what they like in return.
Public like counts turn social approval into a scoreboard. A brain-imaging study of teens found that photos with many likes activated reward circuits and made teens more likely to like them too. The APA cautions against features that fuel comparison. But when Instagram tested hiding likes, it found smaller effects than expected, so hiding likes is a sensible precaution, not a cure.
What the research found
- The "power of the like." In a UCLA brain-imaging study of 32 teens aged 13 to 18 (Sherman et al., 2016), seeing their own photos with many likes activated the brain's reward center. Teens were more likely to like a photo that already had many likes, even from strangers. It was a small lab study with a simulated feed.
- The APA's 2024 review says likes and follower counts "activate neural regions that trigger repetitive behavior," and recommends limiting social media use for comparing yourself to others, especially about appearance.
- Visible counts and feelings. An experiment with 280 adult Instagram users (Wallace & Buil, 2021) found that getting more likes than expected reduced loneliness but increased negative feelings, especially when the count was visible to followers.
Where experts disagree
When Instagram tested hiding like counts in 2021, its head, Adam Mosseri, said it "didn't actually change nearly as much about how people felt" as expected. It helped some people and annoyed others, so Instagram made hiding optional. Researchers including Candice Odgers note that single features are hard to isolate and overall effects are small.
How this shaped OurDot
In OurDot, hearts are private: only the person who posted sees who sent one, and there's no count anywhere. It keeps the warmth of a heart without a public score. We see it as a precaution that matches expert guidance, not a fix on its own.
What we don't claim
- That like counts cause depression.
- That hiding likes improves self-esteem. Instagram's own test didn't clearly find that.
- That likes work "like a drug."
Sources
- Sherman et al., "The Power of the Like in Adolescence," Psychological Science (2016)
- APA, Potential risks of content, features, and functions (2024)
- University of Galway, Wallace & Buil study on Instagram likes (Feb 2021)
- Instagram announcement on optional like counts (about.instagram.com, May 26, 2021)