Big audiences can trigger psychological struggle for creators, study finds
Feb 22nd 2026
A qualitative study of top Instagram artists and YouTube musicians identifies a phenomenon called audience entanglement and outlines three strategies creators use to protect their well being and sustain their work.
- Researchers conducted 74 in-depth interviews with 54 successful creators using an inductive qualitative approach.
- The study names audience entanglement as a persistent emotional dependence between creators and their followers.
- Dysfunctional entanglement shows up as hypersensitivity to likes, comments and algorithm changes and can make creating feel hollow and unsustainable.
- Creators reported cycles of distress that sometimes lead them to consider quitting despite objective success.
- Three management strategies that help are distancing from audience input, depersonalizing critiques, and distilling personal standards.
- Limitations include self reported data and a sample limited to visual artists on Instagram and musicians on YouTube, so findings may not generalize to other creator types or platforms.