Luca Carbone’s research while affiliated with KU Leuven and other places

Music artists can be powerful sources of representation about what it means to have a high status. Previous literature has shown that artists display their high status by singing about economic factors, such as driving expensive cars. Yet, we do not know whether artists also showcase a high status in their lyrics by identifying with a particular social group and showing power via sexual objectification and subjectification. Considering the gender and ethnicity of the artists, this study analyzed 4117 popular lyrics on Spotify between 2016 and 2019 in six Western countries (US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada). A manual analysis of the lyrics showed that almost half (46%) of the songs depicted status in terms of economic capital (e.g., wearing jewels), 26% through social capital (e.g., knowing famous people), 16% through cultural capital (e.g., drinking champagne), and 6% through sexual objectification and subjectification (e.g., showing naked bodies on expensive cars). Most of these status representations were present in rap lyrics and among Black and Brown male artists. These findings offer new evidence and theoretical insights on the diffusion of neoliberal ideals of materialism, utilitarianism, hegemonic masculinity, and objectification in music lyrics and their potential reinforcement of racial-ethnic and gender hierarchies.

Initial evidence suggests that need-supportive videogame play can have positive short-term effects on adolescents’ need satisfaction, and may therefore help to promote positive well-being. However, less is currently known about the long-term interrelations between need-supportive videogame play, global need satisfaction, and adolescent well-being. Thus, guided by self-determination theory and broaden-and-build theory, this study explored the longitudinal reciprocal relationship between adolescents’ need-supportive gameplay and self-esteem, via global need satisfaction. The moderating effect of gender was also examined. Three-wave panel data were collected from 405 Belgian adolescents between September 2021 and September 2022 (M age = 15.13, SD = 1.52; Female = 64.20%), and data were analyzed using random intercept cross-lagged panel models. The valence, strength, and consistency of within-person cross-lagged associations differed across the basic psychological needs, and gender had no moderating effect on the hypothesized models. Results therefore suggest that the uniform positive effects of need-supportive gameplay on adolescent well-being tend to be short-lived, and that over time, videogame play tends to satisfy some basic psychological needs more than others. Findings add to the emerging literature regarding videogame play and positive adolescent well-being, and results emphasize the importance of investigating the long-term implications of adolescent videogame play.