Next Article in Journal
Digital Wallet, Happy Heart: An Analysis Based on the Economic–Social–Environmental Perspective
Previous Article in Journal
Impact of Exclusive Choice Policies on Platform Supply Chains: When Both Same-Side and Cross-Side Network Effects Exist
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
JTAER
Volume 19
Issue 2
10.3390/jtaer19020062
jtaer-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles thumb_up
...
Endorse textsms
...
Comment
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Article

Can Self-Presentation on Social Media Increase Individuals’ Conspicuous Consumption Tendency? A Mixed-Method Empirical Study on WeChat in China

by
Yan Lu
1,
Taiyang Zhao
1,*,
Siying Song
1 and
Wei Song
2
1
School of Philosophy and Sociology, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
2
Yatai School of Business Management, Jilin University of Finance and Economics, Changchun 130012, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res. 2024, 19(2), 1206-1221; https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer19020062
Submission received: 12 March 2024 / Revised: 18 May 2024 / Accepted: 21 May 2024 / Published: 25 May 2024
(This article belongs to the Topic Consumer Psychology and Business Applications)
Browse Figures
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Previous studies have mainly focused on the impact of social media self-presentation on individuals’ happiness and mental health, whereas few have attended to its potential influence on consumer behavior. A mixed-method empirical study with an online survey (N = 408) and an experimental study (N = 160) investigated the effects of social media self-presentation on individuals’ conspicuous consumption in China. We found that consumers’ self-presentation behavior on social media promoted tendencies for social comparison, thereby enhancing their conspicuous consumption. However, compared with individuals using social media less often, self-presentation had a more significant impact on the social comparison tendencies of users who used social media more often. Our study explains why individuals’ self-presentation on social media increases their conspicuous consumption tendencies. The study results contribute to the existing knowledge of how consumers’ behavior on social media affects their product preferences.

1. Introduction

Online social communication has become an integral part of daily life for most members of the general public. Social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Facebook have not only become essential means by which people obtain information and maintain interpersonal relationships but also represent an important field for users’ self-presentation by sharing their views and information about their life to create desirable impressions [1]. In the existing literature on self-presentation on social media, researchers have mainly focused on its impact on individuals’ happiness and mental health [2,3,4], whereas some have investigated its impact on users’ self-concept and social relationships, such as self-esteem, self-concept clarity, body image, friendship development, and popularity [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. However, relatively few studies have examined its potential influence on consumer behavior.
Exploring the influence of social media self-presentation on consumer behavior is valuable because mobile devices have considerably integrated people’s daily consumption scenarios with social media usage habits. Switching from social media to an online shop** platform is nearly instantaneous. Moreover, shop** platforms invest in advertisements on various social media platforms, making it easy for consumers to directly enter the purchasing channel through links [12]. Recently, increasing numbers of social media influencers have been directly recommending products on their social media accounts [13,14,15,16]. Therefore, any actions taken by users on social media, including self-presentation, may immediately affect their shop** decisions.
While social media self-presentation is a way to show oneself to others, conspicuous consumption, defined as the behavior of displaying personal property to show wealth and social status [17], plays a similar role. Since 2016, China has become the second largest luxury market in the world [18]. China has been the fastest growing country in the world for luxury consumption for many years, accounting for 30% of global luxury purchases in 2016 [19]. In 2023, Chinese luxury consumption accounted for about 38% of the world’s total. McKinsey & Company also expects the total market share of the global luxury goods market to reach USD 397 billion by 2025, which will be largely driven by China [20]. In Chinese culture, consumption is seen more as a tool to serve the needs of a higher level of society than as an activity, which is referred to as “face consumption” [21]. Because of the personalized and symbolic characteristics of luxury goods, which correspond to the “face” culture in traditional Chinese cultural values, conspicuous consumption, which is dominated by luxury goods, has become an important motivation and manifestation of Chinese people’s consumption behavior [22]. Therefore, this study chooses the context of China for research, positing that the development and use of social media in recent years have further strengthened the conspicuous consumption tendencies of Chinese consumers.
Using a mixed-method empirical study with an online survey (Study 1) and an experimental study (Study 2), this study attempts to address the following research questions. First, in the context of Chinese culture, does social media self-presentation affect individuals’ conspicuous consumption tendencies? Second, what is the psychological mechanism underlying this effect? Considering the inevitable social comparison in the process of both self-presentation and conspicuous consumption [6,23,24,25], this study explores the mediating role of social comparison in the relationship between social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption. Third, does consumers’ use habit of social media, such as social media use intensity, moderate the effect of social media self-presentation on individuals’ conspicuous consumption tendencies? The exploration of the above research questions will contribute to the literature in the following ways. This paper enriches the theoretical research in the field of social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption, revealing the underling mechanism from the perspective of social comparison theory. It further provides practical implications for corporations regarding social media marketing.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

2.1. Self-Presentation on Social Media and Social Comparison

Self-presentation, a common phenomenon in interpersonal communication, is the conscious process of impression control in which people try to establish, change, or maintain their image in the eyes of others [26,27]. Self-presentation theory suggests that people have a general tendency to engage in socially approved behaviors and maintain positive self-images and impressions [28]. With the popularity and development of the Internet, social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Facebook have become important channels for individuals’ self-presentations. Social media users engage in this process by sharing their views and information about their status to create desirable impressions [1]. Individuals often publish self-presentation-related information on social media platforms. They share their personal updates or views through photos, texts, and videos. Simultaneously, users see self-presentation-related information posted by others on their social networks.
Researchers have shown that everyone tries to show positive and enviable aspects of their life on social media [29,30]. Many social media users present engaging images by posting content about enjoying delicious food and tourism activities. People also present their high quality of life by sharing posts about new products or luxuries they have purchased. They present evidence of good interpersonal relationships by displaying friend gatherings and posting about gifts they have received. Driven by the motivation of presenting a positive self to others, individuals tend to seek confirmation; after posting self-presentation-related content on social media, they pay attention to the number of comments or likes that others give to their content [31].
Psychological research has found that social comparison, or the means by which individuals evaluate their abilities and opinions by comparing themselves with others [32], is an important way for individuals to obtain information about themselves. Festinger’s [33] social comparison theory posits that humans have a natural drive to compare themselves to others to evaluate where they stand. He states that people are especially inclined to engage in social comparison behavior when objective means for self-evaluation are unavailable [33]. Individuals commonly engage in social comparison in daily life, and their objects of social comparison are often the people with whom they have contact [33,34]. Social comparison is a spontaneous process as long as individuals are exposed to others’ information [35]. Previous studies have found that it is easy for individuals to compare the statuses and perspectives with their own when using social media because the content posted by other users easily becomes reference information [36,37]. Krasnova et al. [38] found that users viewing others’ profiles online may lead to increased social comparisons. People have reported that they use social networking sites to make social comparisons, specifically while viewing others’ posts and photos [39]. This indicates that others’ self-presented information in social media further promotes individuals’ social comparison tendencies. Frison and Eggermont [40] found that individuals exposed to others’ online self-presentation may develop a perception that others are better off. When social media posts show others enjoying traveling, the image may contrast with the viewer’s current non-free status. Likewise, social media posts of other users’ new and enviable goods may contrast with an individual’s current financial constraints, whereas posted scenes of pleasant gatherings of friends may contrast with one’s current sense of loneliness. Individuals also realize “they are happier and having better lives than I am” after comparing themselves to other users who seem to be living better lives [41]. Therefore, others’ self-presentation information communicated via social media may induce strong social comparisons among individuals and substantially impact both their psychological state and behavior.
While previous studies have demonstrated that viewing others’ self-presentation information on social media can promote individuals’ social comparison tendencies, fewer studies have explored whether posting self-related content can improve such tendencies. We argue that this contrast may be even stronger when individuals post their self-presented content on social media because they may unconsciously compare their posted statuses to those of other users. Compared with simply browsing others’ statuses, individuals’ self-presentation on social media can induce additional involvement and lead the individuals to be more worried and concerned about their image in the eyes of others and thus seek more social comparison information. Online selfie posting is one method of self-presentation in social media [42]; relative to taking photos for oneself, taking photos for sharing with others (posting on social media) increases self-presentational concerns [43]. After women display their selfies on social media, they are more inclined to make social comparisons with their peers regarding appearances [23]. At the same time, after individuals post a status on social media, they pay more attention to the feedback of others [31,44], such as the number and content of likes and comments. This feedback can reflect the popularity of individuals on social media as well as their social capabilities, making it an easily obtainable source of information for social comparison. Therefore, we assume that consumers’ self-presentation on social media may promote their tendency to make social comparisons.

2.2. Social Comparison Tendency and Conspicuous Consumption

Conspicuous consumption refers to the behavior of obtaining and displaying one’s property to show wealth and social status [17]. Griskevicius et al. [45] further pointed out that conspicuous consumption is the act of spending money to gain status and impress others by indicating that one has enough money to purchase frivolous and wasteful goods. Conspicuous consumption includes not only the consumption of luxury goods but also all types of consumption that can arouse the attention of oneself and impress others. It is a type of self-centered and showy behavior. With its popularity and characteristics of publicity, efficiency, timely feedback, and extensive audience, social media has become an important channel for people to display conspicuous consumption [46,47,48]. People tend to display conspicuous consumption behavior in cyberspace and are influenced by other individuals’ behaviors in the network. Luxury-good buyers expect to receive non-financial values (i.e., social status, social approval, and a sense of empowerment and complacency) by sharing their brand experience on social media [49,50,51]. This process inevitably evokes social comparison between consumers and others.
Previous studies have found that social comparison can lead to conspicuous consumption behavior [52,53]. This is because in social comparison, individuals are often exposed to information that others are better than themselves, thus experiencing self-threat [54]. Consumers tend to feel inferior after making comparisons to those who possess advantages over them [33,55]. As inferiority is an aversive psychological state [56], consumers are motivated to alleviate it and restore a sense of superiority. To compensate for this threat, lighten their unpleasant psychological state, and present a positive self-image, consumers choose to purchase goods, including through conspicuous consumption, that symbolize their higher social status [24,54,57,58]. Previous studies have found that in a consumption context, the superiority goal can be achieved by acquiring and/or displaying costly material possessions [59]. This can also be explained by the “kee**-up-with-the-Joneses” effect, in which consumers compare what they have to what others have, realize they are worse off, and strive to reduce the possession gap by acquiring conspicuously displayed products [52,60,61,62,63]. Specifically, when individuals realize that a gap exists between themselves and groups that are more advantaged in some respect, they tend to show others their wealth and status by purchasing products with conspicuous characteristics, thus compensating for the threat to their self-esteem caused by social comparison and restoring their comparative advantage [64,65]. Some studies have confirmed that even though the fields of comparison are non-material (such as ability and popularity), consumers increase their conspicuous consumption tendencies because conspicuous material goods can help an individual gain a relative comparative advantage [24].
Based on the above logic, in the context of social media use, consumers’ self-presentation in social media could promote tendencies of social comparison. Additionally, individuals may prefer products with more conspicuous characteristics to obtain comparative advantages. Hence, we proposed the following hypotheses:
H1. 
Self-presentation on social media can enhance consumers’ conspicuous consumption tendencies.
H2. 
Social comparison mediates the impact of social media self-presentation on consumers’ conspicuous consumption. Specifically, self-presentation on social media can promote consumers’ social comparison tendency and, thus, increase their conspicuous consumption tendencies.

2.3. The Moderating Role of Social Media Use Intensity

We propose that consumers’ social media use intensity moderates the above effects. Specifically, users with high social media use intensity and those with mild use intensity differ in their social comparison and conspicuous consumption tendencies after posting self-presentation content. Heavy social media users often obtain information through social media and pay more attention to the content posted by others, which serves as an essential source for their social comparison [66,67,68]. In contrast, light social media users, even though they post self-presentation-related content, have fewer opportunities to make social comparisons because they pay less attention to feedback and the content of other users. According to the above logic, the following hypothesis was proposed:
H3: 
Individuals’ social media use intensity positively moderates the impact of their social media self-presentation on their social comparison and conspicuous consumption tendencies.
According to the proposed hypotheses, we propose the theoretical framework of our study in Figure 1.

3. Study 1: Survey Study

3.1. Participants

For Study 1, we recruited 408 participants (59.8% female, 17–52 years old, Mage = 28.85 ± 7.43) on the Credamo data collection platform in China. Each participant completed an electronic questionnaire in exchange for a monetary payment.

3.2. Measurements

3.2.1. Self-Presentation on Social Media

We used the scale by Yang et al. [69] to measure participants’ self-presentation on social media. Because the most used social media in China is WeChat, we replaced “Facebook” in the original questionnaire with “WeChat.” The questionnaire included seventeen statements (Please see Appendix A for detail), such as “I openly share my emotions on social media” and “I display photos that involve a variety of images of me on social media.” The participants were asked to evaluate their agreement with these statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree). The average score of the seventeen items was calculated (α = 0.902); the higher the score, the higher their self-presentation on social media tendency.

3.2.2. Social Media Use Intensity

The eight-item scale by Ellison et al. [26] was used to measure participants’ social media use intensity; “Facebook” from the original questionnaire was replaced with “WeChat.” The first two items asked for the number of friends the participants had on social media and the time they spent on social media. The following sample statements about the participants’ social media usage habits were included on the questionnaire: “WeChat has become part of my daily routine” and “I would be sorry if WeChat shut down (Please see Appendix B for detail).” A 7-point Likert scale was used for these six items (1 = totally disagree, 7 = totally agree). The higher the score, the higher the social media use intensity of the participants (α = 0.904).

3.2.3. Social Comparison Tendency

The 11-item scale compiled by Gibbons and Buunk [32] was selected to measure social comparison, including items such as “I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people” and “I often compare myself with others with respect to what I have accomplished in life (Please see Appendix C for detail).” Responses were given on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree). The higher the average score, the stronger the participants’ social comparison tendency (α = 0.805).

3.2.4. Conspicuous Consumption Tendency

The five-item questionnaire developed by Shaikh and Gummerum [70] was used to measure participants’ conspicuous consumption tendencies. Sample items are “I would like to own expensive luxuries that communicate class and prestige” and “I feel stylish and classy if I am wearing branded clothes and accessories (Please see Appendix D for detail).” The participants were asked to evaluate their agreement with these statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree). The higher the average score, the higher the participants’ conspicuous consumption tendency (α = 0.744).

3.3. Discriminant Validity

The Fornell–Larcker test was used to analyze the discriminant validity. As shown in Table 1, all correlations between the latent constructs were less than the square root of the AVE, which suggests a desirable discriminant validity of the variables.

3.4. Results

3.4.1. Main Effect and Mediation Effect

All analyses were conducted using the bootstrap method by the PROCESS macro developed by Hayes [71] in SPSS 25.0. We used Model 4 of PROCESS to examine H1 and H2 in which p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. This model can conveniently analyze the effect of independent variable on independent variable (i.e., Total Effect in Table 2) and their mediating effects (i.e., Indirect Effect and Direct Effect in Table 2) simultaneously and is widely used in the data analysis of consumer behavior research [72,73].
As shown in Table 2, the results showed that the total effect was positively significant (β = 0.192, p < 0.001). This indicates that self-presentation on social media can improve individuals’ conspicuous consumption tendency, which verified H1. The indirect effect of social comparison tendency between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption tendency was also significant (β = 0.040, 95% CI = 0.015–0.099). Specifically, self-presentation on social media positively affected social comparison tendency (β = 0.209, p < 0.001), whereas social comparison tendency positively affected conspicuous consumption tendency (β = 0.191, p < 0.001). Hence, H2 was also verified. The mediating model is presented in Figure 2.

3.4.2. The Moderated Mediation Model

We used Model 7 of Hayes’s [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model. The results reveal that social media use intensity had a significant moderation effect on the relationship between self-presentation on social media and social comparison tendency (β = 0.234, p < 0.001). The results of the simple slope analysis in Figure 3 also show that when participants’ social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was not significant (B = 0.07, p = 0.231). However, when participants’ social media use intensity was higher (+SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was positively significant (B = 0.36, p < 0.001; see Figure 3), and a similar pattern was observed for the mediation effect of social comparison. As shown in Table 3, the mediation effect was not significant (B = 0.02, 95% CI = −0.011–0.063) when social media use intensity was lower (−SD), but it became significant (B= 0.08, 95% CI = 0.032–0.142) at higher levels of social media use intensity (+SD). Hence, H3 was verified.

3.4.3. The Effect of Demographic Variables

We first conducted a series of independent sample t-tests to analysis the differences between genders. The results in Table 4 reveal that female participants had significantly higher scores than male participants for social media self-presentation (Mmale = 3.34, SD = 0.70; Mfemale = 3.77, SD = 0.51, p < 0.001), social media use intensity (Mmale = 4.55, SD = 0.92; Mfemale = 4.84, SD = 0.75, p = 0.001), and conspicuous consumption tendency (Mmale = 2.93, SD = 0.72; Mfemale = 3.38, SD = 0.77, p < 0.001), but there was no discernible difference on social comparison tendency between female and male participants. We also used Model 1 of Hayes [71] to examine the moderation effects of gender between the independent and dependent variables. The results show that the moderation effect of gender on social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption tendency was not significant (CI = −0.12–0.36, p = 0.34).
Second, we also analyzed the effect of age on the variables using Pearson Correlation. The results showed a significant positive correlation between age and social comparison tendency. Then, we further analyzed the moderation role of age between independent and dependent variables using Model 1 of Hayes [71]. The results showed that the moderation effect of age between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption tendency was marginally significant (CI = −0.002–0.03, p = 0.059). The results of the simple slope analysis (see Figure 4) show that when participants’ age was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption was not significant (p = 0.083). However, there was a positive significant impact (p < 0.001) when participants’ age was at a higher level (+SD).

4. Study 2: An Experimental Study

4.1. Participants

For Study 2, we adopted a single factor between-subject design (self-presentation group vs. control group). A total of 180 participants were recruited from a university in China in exchange for a monetary payment (47.91% female, 16–23 years old, Mage = 20.37 ± 1.85).

4.2. Procedure

The participants were first asked to complete the same social media use intensity questionnaire employed in Study 1 (α = 0.791). Next, each participant was randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions. The participants in the self-presentation group were asked to post content describing their recent state along with a photo of themselves on WeChat Moments. Control group participants were asked to forward an article from any WeChat official account in WeChat Moments. To fully utilize the experimental manipulation, we sent an electronic questionnaire to the participants 24 h later to measure their conspicuous consumption tendency. Previous studies have found that the size of a logo on a branded product can reflect its conspicuousness [59]. Therefore, taking the same approach as Zheng et al. [24], we measured participants’ conspicuous consumption tendency by giving them a choice between an item with a large logo and one with a small logo. We told the participants that, in appreciation for their participation, we would give a Nike hat to 10 lucky people randomly selected from the participants, and they could choose between the pictures of two hats, one with a larger Nike logo and the other with a smaller Nike logo (see Figure 5). Participants who chose a hat with a large Nike Logo had a stronger conspicuous consumption tendency. If a participant won the lottery, we would mail them the chosen hat. We used the scale used in Study 1 to measure the social comparison tendency of the participants (α = 0.821).

4.3. Results

4.3.1. Main Effect and Mediation Effect

The results show that more self-presentation group participants chose the hat with the big logo compared to the control group participants (73.3% vs. 57.8%; χ2 = 4.82, p = 0.028). This result indicates that self-presentation on social media promotes consumers’ conspicuous consumption tendency; thus, H1 was again verified. We used the same Bootstrap method and Model 4 as in Study 1 to examine mediation effects [71]. The results revealed a significant mediation effect for social comparison (β = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.035–0.564). Specifically, social media self-presentation (self-presentation = 1, control group = 0) positively affected social comparison tendency (β = 0.394, p < 0.000), and social comparison tendency positively affected conspicuous consumption tendency (Big logo = 1, Small logo = 0; β = 0.663, p = 0.021), again verifying H2.

4.3.2. The Moderated Mediation Model

We used Model 7 of Hayes’s [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model. The results show that the moderation effect of the social media use intensity between self-presentation on social media and social comparison tendency was significant (β = 0.376, p = 0.010). The results of the simple slope analysis showed that when participants’ social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was not significant (β = 0.144, p = 0.202). However, there was a positive significant impact when participants’ social media use intensified (+SD), and the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was positively significant (β = 0.572, p < 0.001; see Figure 6). The meditation effect of social comparison also showed a similar pattern. The meditation effect was not significant (β = 0.10, 95% CI = −0.075–0.264) when the social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), and it became significant (β = 0.379, 95% CI = 0.058–0.800) at a higher level (+SD), again verifying H3.

5. Discussion

5.1. Theoretical Contribution

The theoretical contributions of this study relative to the existing literature mainly manifest in the following ways. First, this research established a significant positive relationship between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption. Although some studies have demonstrated that people sometimes display their conspicuous consumption and conspicuous pro-social behavior in social media environments [1,74,75], there is a lack of research on how consumers’ behavior on social media affects their product preferences in daily life. Studies in the business field have attended to the fact that the self-presentation of celebrities on social media promotes consumers’ purchase intention of luxury brands endorsed by celebrities [76,77]. However, whether consumers’ self-presentation behavior promotes their conspicuous consumption tendency has not been sufficiently investigated. Through a survey and an experimental study, we found that consumers’ self-presentation on social media could affect their conspicuous consumption tendencies in daily life, which provides an interactive perspective on consumers’ online usage habits and offline consumption behavior based on the existing literature.
Second, although previous studies have revealed a relationship between social comparison and conspicuous consumption [24], their primary focus has been on social comparison situations in daily life rather than online situations, and they have overlooked how consumers’ social media use habits affect their social comparison and conspicuous consumption behaviors. The current study found that social comparison, which affects an individual’s conspicuous consumption, could also be derived from their use of social media. At the same time, this study expands the scope of application of social comparison theory and further summarizes previous studies on the use of social media on social comparison behavior, suggesting that consumers’ self-presentation, not only offline but also online, can promote their social comparison tendencies.
Third, previous studies on the use intensity of social media have primarily focused on its relationship with consumers’ emotions and mental health [67,68]. However, this study found that social media use intensity could moderate the relationship between consumers’ social media self-presentation and social comparison tendencies. Even though consumers with weak social media use intensity post self-presentation content on social media, their social comparison tendencies and conspicuous consumption behaviors are not affected. This finding can enrich the literature on social media use intensity.

5.2. Practical Implications

The primary practical implications of this study are as follows.
For individuals, due to its popularity, people are used to presenting themselves on social media. Previous studies have revealed positive effects of social media self-presentation, such as promoting prosocial behavior, enhancing adolescents’ self-esteem, and promoting individual self-identity [9,69,75]. However, this study found that self-presentation on social media could enhance individuals’ social comparison, potentially leading to their irrational tendency toward conspicuous consumption. This may result in a greater financial burden to consumers, especially for individuals with low socio-economic statuses and financial constraints. Compared with consumers of a high subjective social class, consumers with a low perception of subjective social class have a stronger tendency toward conspicuous consumption [78]. Another important finding of this study is that a low social media use intensity can mitigate the impact of social media self-presentation on consumers’ conspicuous consumption behavior. Therefore, it is wise for individuals who often post self-presentation content on social media to use social media sparingly.
For corporations, the findings provide implications regarding social media marketing. Social media sites are essentially interactive platforms with built-in interactive tools including hashtags. As an important form of interactive marketing, social media marketing has been proven to promote the increase in corporate profits and consumer participation in many countries and regions [79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86]. As mentioned above, consumption is seen more as a tool to serve the needs of a higher level of society than as an activity in Chinese culture, which is referred to as “face consumption” [21]. Influenced by face culture, Chinese consumers are more inclined to compare themselves with people around them in daily life, that is, they are susceptible to the “kee**-up-with-the-Joneses” effect [52]. According to the conclusions of the current study, social media self-presentation exacerbates such effects. Marketing practitioners, especially those selling conspicuous products, should attend to social media as an important marketing channel in China. The findings of this study may be good news for businesses selling conspicuous products because they can promote consumers’ purchase intentions by enhancing their influence on social media and encouraging potential consumers to present themselves on social media. In addition, enterprises can employ key opinion leaders (social media celebrities) to make self-presentations on social media in a way that promotes imitation by consumers, thereby enhancing consumers’ purchase willingness.

5.3. Limitations and Future Directions

First, this study found that self-presentation on social media could promote individuals’ conspicuous consumption behavior. However, the opposite may also be true; that is, when individuals buy or use a conspicuous product, they may be more likely to present themselves on social media. Future research can focus on such related issues. Second, this study focused on the moderation role of social media use intensity, which is a boundary condition related to user habits. However, consumers’ personal characteristics, such as materialistic values and self-esteem, may also work as moderators between self-presentation on social media and consumers’ conspicuous consumption. Future research can examine the role of these variables. Third, social media in this study was limited to WeChat; however, the privacy of each social media varies. WeChat Moments is only visible to acquaintances, whereas Weibo is relatively more open, and its contents can be promoted to strangers. Consumers’ conspicuous behaviors may change across online social platforms, and future research can explore the differences in conspicuous behavior on social media with different degrees of privacy. Cross-cultural differences in people’s online conspicuous behavior are also worth studying [87]. In addition, participants were geographically concentrated in China; thus, generalizability may be limited. Replication with another sample drawn from a wider population could demonstrate generalizability. Finally, before the data analysis, we expected participants of different genders to have significantly different scores in terms of social media self-presentation, social comparison tendency, conspicuous consumption tendency, and social media use intensity. Female participants had significantly higher scores than their male counterparts regarding social media self-presentation, social media use intensity, and conspicuous consumption tendency; however, there was no significant difference in the scores for social comparison tendency between female and male participants. Furthermore, no significant gender-related difference was found in the effect of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption tendency. This may be because most of the experimental groups in this study comprised young people; therefore, conducting research on older adults is recommended in the future.

Author Contributions

T.Z. designed the study and conceived and drafted the manuscript. Y.L., S.S. and W.S. collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data. T.Z. instructed the project. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Projects: 71902069, 72202084, 72372053, 72272060), the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund Project of the Chinese Ministry of Education (Grant No. 23YJC630250), and the Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University (No. 2023CX001).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author. The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Appendix A. Social Media Self-Presentation Scale (* Reversely Coded Items)

Breadth
  • I display photos that involve a variety of images of me on social media.
  • People could know different aspects of me by viewing my social media page.
  • What I put on social media is a fairly comprehensive representation of myself.
  • I present multiple aspects of myself on social media.
Depth
  • I openly share my emotions on social media.
  • On social media, I share things about myself that could lead to negative judgments of me.
  • I openly share my opinions on social media.
  • I openly share my weaknesses on social media.
  • I intimately reveal myself when using social media.
Positivity
  • I normally reveal bad feelings about myself on social media. *
  • On social media, I often reveal more undesirable things about myself than desirable things.*
  • I usually disclose negative things about myself on social media. *
Authenticity
  • I am sincere when I reveal my own feelings on social media.
  • My self-presentations on social media are accurate reflections of who I am.
  • I am not always honest in my self-presentations on social media. *
  • My social media posts about my feelings are honest.
  • My social media posts about my experiences are accurate.

Appendix B. Social Media Use Intensity Scale

  • How many friends do you usually keep in touch with on WeChat in daily life? (1 = 10 or fewer, 2 = 11–20, 3 = 21–50, 4 = 51–100, 5 = 151–200, 6 = 201–300, 7 = more than 300).
  • In the past week, on average, approximately how many hours per day have you spent on WeChat? (1 = less than 1 h, 2 = 1–2 h, 3 = 2–3 h, 4 = 3–4 h, 5 = 4–5 h, 6 = 5–6 h, 7 = more than 6 h).
  • WeChat is part of my everyday activity.
  • I am proud to tell people I’m on WeChat.
  • WeChat has become part of my daily routine.
  • I feel out of touch when I haven’t logged onto WeChat for a while.
  • I feel I am part of the WeChat community.
  • I would be sorry if WeChat shut down.

Appendix C. Social Comparison Tendency Scale (* Reversely Coded Items)

  • I often compare how my loved ones (boy- or girlfriend, family members, etc.) are doing with how others are doing.
  • I always pay a lot of attention to how I do things compared with how others do things.
  • If I want to find out how well I have done something, I compare what I have done with how others have done.
  • I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people.
  • I am not the type of person who compares often with others. *
  • I often compare myself with others with respect to what I have accomplished in life.
  • I often like to talk with others about mutual opinions and experiences.
  • I often try to find out what others think who face similar problems as I face.
  • I always like to know what others in a similar situation would do.
  • If I want to learn more about something, I try to find out what others think about it.
  • I never consider my situation in life relative to that of other people. *

Appendix D. Conspicuous Consumption Tendency Scale

  • I am attracted to an individual who wears branded clothes and accessories.
  • I feel stylish and classy if I am wearing branded clothes and accessories.
  • I like luxury goods with logos that associate with my sense of style.
  • I would like to own expensive luxuries that communicate class and prestige.
  • I am interested in or fascinated by people who come from well-to-do backgrounds with heritage and lineage.

References

  1. Michaelidou, N.; Christodoulides, G.; Presi, C. Ultra-high-net-worth individuals: Self-presentation and luxury consumption on Instagram. Eur. J. Mark. 2021, 56, 949–967. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  2. De Vaate, N.A.J.D.B.; Veldhuis, J.; Konijn, E.A. How online self-presentation affects well-being and body image: A systematic review. Telemat. Inform. 2020, 47, 101316. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  3. Mun, I.B.; Kim, H. Influence of false self-presentation on mental health and deleting behavior on Instagram: The mediating role of perceived popularity. Front. Psychol. 2021, 12, 660484. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  4. Twomey, D.; O’Reilly, G. Associations of self-presentation on Facebook with mental health and personality variables: A systematic review. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2017, 20, 587–595. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  5. Choi, S.; Williams, D.; Kim, H. A snap of your true self: How self-presentation and temporal affordance influence self-concept on social media. New Media Soc. 2021, 1461444820977199. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  6. Fox, J.; Vendemia, M.A. Selective self-presentation and social comparison through photographs on social networking sites. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2016, 19, 593–600. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  7. Hong, S.; Jahng, M.R.; Lee, N.; Wise, K.R. Do you filter who you are?: Excessive self-presentation, social cues, and user evaluations of Instagram selfies. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2020, 104, 106159. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  8. Lee, D.K.L.; Borah, P. Self-presentation on Instagram and friendship development among young adults: A moderated mediation model of media richness, perceived functionality, and openness. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2020, 103, 57–66. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  9. Meeus, A.; Beullens, K.; Eggermont, S. Like me (please?): Connecting online self-presentation to pre- and early adolescents’ self-esteem. New Media Soc. 2019, 21, 2386–2403. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  10. Steinsbekk, S.; Wichstrom, L.; Stenseng, F.; Nesi, J.; Hygen, B.W.; Skalicka, V. The impact of social media use on appearance self-esteem from childhood to adolescence—A 3-wave community study. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2020, 114, 106528. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  11. Yang, C.C.; Brown, B.B. Online self-presentation on Facebook and self development during the college transition. J. Youth Adolesc. 2016, 45, 402–416. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  12. Alonso-Garcia, J.; Pablo-Marti, F.; Núñez-Barriopedro, E.; Cuesta-Valiño, P. Digitalization in B2B marketing: Omnichannel management from a PLS-SEM approach. J. Bus. Ind. Mark. 2023, 38, 317–336. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  13. Bi, N.C.; Zhang, R.N. “I will buy what my ‘friend’ recommends”: The effects of parasocial relationships, influencer credibility and self-esteem on purchase intentions. J. Res. Interact. Mark. 2022, 17, 157–175. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  14. Dinh, T.C.T.; Lee, Y. “I want to be as trendy as influencers”-how “fear of missing out” leads to buying intention for products endorsed by social media influencers. J. Res. Interact. Mark. 2021, 16, 346–364. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  15. Masuda, H.; Han, S.H.; Lee, J. Impacts of influencer attributes on purchase intentions in social media influencer marketing: Mediating roles of characterizations. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 2022, 174, 121246. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  16. Schouten, A.P.; Janssen, L.; Verspaget, M. Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: The role of identification, credibility, and product-endorser fit. Int. J. Advert. 2020, 39, 258–281. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  17. Veblen, T. The Theory of the Leisure Class; Davor: New York, NY, USA, 1899. [Google Scholar]
  18. Chi, D. China Becomes World’s Second Largest Luxury Market. Available online: https://www.icbc.com.cn/icbc/%E7%BD%91%E4%B8%8A%E7%90%86%E8%B4%A2/%E8%B4%B5%E5%AE%BE%E4%B8%93%E4%BA%AB/%E5%93%81%E5%91%B3%E6%97%B6%E5%B0%9A/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%88%90%E4%B8%BA%E5%85%A8%E7%90%83%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E5%A4%A7%E5%A5%A2%E4%BE%88%E5%93%81%E5%B8%82%E5%9C%BA.htm (accessed on 23 June 2017).
  19. MartinRoll. Chinese Luxury Consumers–Trends and Challenges for Luxury Brands. Available online: https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/asia/chinese-luxury-consumers-trends-and-challenges-for-luxury-brands/ (accessed on 15 October 2017).
  20. Zhang, L.N.; Zhao, H.D. Personal value vs. luxury value: What are Chinese luxury consumers shop** for when buying luxury fashion goods? J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 2019, 51, 62–71. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  21. Li, J.J.; Su, C.T. How face influences consumption: A comparative study of American and Chinese consumers. Int. J. Mark. Res. 2007, 49, 237–256. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  22. Li, J.; Zhang, X.A.; Sun, G. Effects of “face” consciousness on status consumption among Chinese consumers: Perceived social value as a mediator. Psychol. Rep. 2015, 116, 280–291. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  23. Chua, T.H.H.; Chang, L. Follow me and like my beautiful selfies: Singapore teenage girls’ engagement in self-presentation and peer comparison on social media. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2016, 55, 190–197. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  24. Zheng, X.; Baskin, E.; Peng, S. Feeling inferior, showing off: The effect of nonmaterial social comparisons on conspicuous consumption. J. Bus. Res. 2018, 90, 196–205. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  25. Zheng, X.Y.; Baskin, E.; Peng, S.Q. The spillover effect of incidental social comparison on materialistic pursuits: The mediating role of envy. Eur. J. Mark. 2018, 52, 1107–1127. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  26. Ellison, N.B.; Steinfield, C.; Lampe, C. The benefits of Facebook “friends”: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. J. Comput.-Mediat. Commun. 2007, 12, 1143–1168. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  27. Niu, G.; Bao, N.; Zhou, Z.; Fan, C.; Kong, F.; Sun, X. The impact of self-presentation in online social network sites on life satisfaction: The effect of positive affect and social support. Psychol. Dev. Educ. 2015, 31, 563–570. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  28. Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life; Doubleday: Garden City, NY, USA, 1959. [Google Scholar]
  29. Bazarova, N.N.; Taft, J.G.; Choi, Y.H.; Cosley, D. Managing impressions and relationships on Facebook: Self-presentational and relational concerns revealed through the analysis of language style. J. Lang. Soc. Psychol. 2013, 32, 121–141. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  30. Keutler, M.; McHugh, L. Self-compassion buffers the effects of perfectionistic self-presentation on social media on wellbeing. J. Context. Behav. Sci. 2022, 23, 53–58. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  31. Lee, E.; Kim, Y.J.; Ahn, J. How do people use Facebook features to manage social capital? Comput. Hum. Behav. 2014, 36, 440–445. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  32. Gibbons, F.X.; Buunk, B.P. Individual differences in social comparison: Development of a scale of social comparison orientation. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 1999, 76, 129–142. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  33. Festinger, L. A theory of social comparison processes. Hum. Relat. 1954, 7, 117–140. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  34. Kruglanski, A.W.; Mayseless, O. Classic and current social comparison research: Expanding the perspective. Psychol. Bull. 1990, 108, 195–208. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  35. Niu, G.; Sun, X.; Zhou, Z.; Kong, F.; Tian, Y. The impact of social network site (Qzone) on adolescents’ depression: The serial mediation of upward social comparison and self-esteem. Acta Psychol. Sin. 2016, 48, 1282–1291. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  36. Han, R.; Xu, J.; Ge, Y.; Qin, Y. The impact of social media use on job burnout: The role of social comparison. Front. Public Health 2020, 8, 588097. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  37. Samra, A.; Warburton, W.A.; Collins, A.M. Social comparisons: A potential mechanism linking problematic social media use with depression. J. Behav. Addict. 2022, 11, 607–614. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  38. Krasnova, H.; Wenninger, H.; Widjaja, T.; Buxmann, P. Envy on Facebook: A hidden threat to user’s life satisfaction? In Proceedings of the 11th Int’l Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Leipzig, Germany, 27 February–1 March 2013. [Google Scholar]
  39. Lee, S.Y. How do people compare themselves with others on social network sites? The case of Facebook. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2014, 32, 253–260. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  40. Frison, E.; Eggermont, S. “Harder, better, faster, stronger”: Negative comparison on Facebook and adolescents’ life satisfaction are reciprocally related. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2016, 19, 158–164. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  41. Chou, H.T.G.; Edge, N. “They are happier and having better lives than I am”: The impact of using Facebook on perceptions of others’ lives. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2012, 15, 117–121. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  42. Pounders, K.; Kowalczyk, C.M.; Stowers, K. Insight into the motivation of selfie postings: Impression management and self-esteem. Eur. J. Mark. 2016, 50, 1879–1892. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  43. Barasch, A.; Zauberman, G.; Diehl, K. How the intention to share can undermine enjoyment: Photo-taking goals and evaluation of experiences. J. Consum. Res. 2018, 44, 1220–1237. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  44. Li, P.X.; Chang, L.; Chua, T.H.H.; Loh, R.S.M. “Likes” as KPI: An examination of teenage girls’ perspective on peer feedback on Instagram and its influence on co** response. Telemat. Inform. 2018, 35, 1994–2005. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  45. Griskevicius, V.; Tybur, J.M.; Sundie, J.M.; Cialdini, R.B.; Miller, G.F.; Kenrick, D.T. Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption: When romantic motives elicit costly displays. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 2007, 93, 85–102. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  46. Núnez-Barriopedro, E.; Cuesta-Valiño, P.; Mansori-Amar, S. The role of perceived usefulness and annoyance on programmatic advertising: The moderating effect of Internet user privacy and cookies. Corp. Commun. Int. J. 2023, 28, 311–324. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  47. Ghouse, S.M.; Duffett, R.G.; Chaudhary, M. How Twitter advertising influences the purchase intentions and purchase attitudes of Indian millennial consumers? Int. J. Internet Mark. Advert. 2022, 16, 142–164. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  48. Miller, H. Veblen online: Information and the risk of commandeering the conspicuous self. Inf. Res. 2018, 23, 797. Available online: https://informationr.net/ir/23-3/paper797.html (accessed on 19 March 2019).
  49. Cuesta-Valiño, P.; Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, P.; Núnez-Barriopedro, E.; García-Henche, B. Strategic orientation towards digitization to improve supermarket loyalty in an omnichannel context. J. Bus. Res. 2023, 156, 113475. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  50. Prentice, C.; Loureiro, S.M.C. Consumer-based approach to customer engagement--the case of luxury brands. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 2018, 43, 325–332. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  51. Zhang, M.; Li, Y.Z.; Gu, R.J.; Luo, C. What type of purchase do you prefer to share on social networking sites: Experiential or material? J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 2021, 58, 102342. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  52. Christen, M.; Morgan, R.M. Kee** up with the Joneses: Analyzing the effect of income inequality on consumer borrowing. Quant. Mark. Econ. 2005, 3, 145–173. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  53. Qattan, J.; Al Khasawneh, M. The psychological motivations of online conspicuous consumption: A qualitative study. Int. J. E-Bus. Res. 2020, 16, 1–16. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  54. Zheng, X.Y.; Peng, S.Q.; Dai, S.S. Impact of social comparison on conspicuous consumption: A psychological compensation perspective. J. Mark. Sci. 2014, 10, 19–31. [Google Scholar]
  55. Corcoran, K.; Crusius, J.; Mussweiler, T. Social comparison: Motives, standards, and mechanisms. In Theories in Social Psychology; Chadee, D., Ed.; John Wiley & Sons: Edison, NJ, USA, 2011. [Google Scholar]
  56. Adler, A. Individual psychology. J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol. 1927, 22, 116–122. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  57. Pettit, N.C.; Sivanathan, N. The plastic trap: Self-threat drives credit usage and status consumption. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 2011, 2, 146–153. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  58. Sivanathan, N.; Pettit, N.C. Protecting the self through consumption: Status goods as affirmational commodities. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 2010, 46, 564–570. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  59. Lee, J.; Shrum, L.J. Conspicuous consumption versus charitable behavior in response to social exclusion: A differential needs explanation. J. Consum. Res. 2012, 39, 530–544. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  60. Frank, R.H. The demand for unobservable and other nonpositional goods. Am. Econ. Rev. 1985, 75, 101–116. [Google Scholar]
  61. Gurzki, H.; Woisetschläger, D.M. Map** the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis. J. Bus. Res. 2017, 77, 147–166. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  62. Kastanakis, M.N.; Balabanis, G. Explaining variation in conspicuous luxury consumption: An individual differences’ perspective. J. Bus. Res. 2014, 67, 2147–2154. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  63. Kaus, W. Conspicuous consumption and “race”: Evidence from South Africa. J. Dev. Econ. 2013, 100, 63–73. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  64. Crusius, J.; Mussweiler, T. When people want what others have: The impulsive side of envious desire. Emotion 2012, 12, 142–153. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  65. Van de Ven, N.; Zeelenberg, M.; Pieters, R. The envy premium in product evaluation. J. Consum. Res. 2011, 37, 984–998. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  66. Bhargava, V.R.; Velasquez, M. Ethics of the attention economy: The problem of social media addiction. Bus. Ethics Q. 2021, 31, 321–359. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  67. Hou, Y.; **anjira, M. Somewhat pushy but effective: The role of value-laden social media digital content marketing (VSM-DCM) for search and experience products. J. Res. Interact. Mark. 2022, 16, 365–383. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  68. Samarah, T.; Bayram, P.; Aljuhmani, H.Y.; Elrehail, H. The role of brand interactivity and involvement in driving social media consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty: The mediating effect of brand trust. J. Res. Interact. Mark. 2022, 16, 648–664. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  69. Cuesta-Valiño, P.; Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, P.; García-Henche, B.; Núñez-Barriopedro, E. The impact of corporate social responsibility on consumer brand engagement and purchase intention at fashion retailers. Psychol. Mark. 2024, 41, 649–664. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  70. Chen, M.; Zhang, J.; **e, Z.; Niu, J. Online low-key conspicuous behavior of fashion luxury goods: The antecedents and its impact on consumer happiness. J. Consum. Behav. 2021, 20, 148–159. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Jtaer 19 00062 g001
Figure 1. Theoretical framework.
Figure 1. Theoretical framework.
Jtaer 19 00062 g001
Jtaer 19 00062 g002
Figure 2. Path coefficients and indirect effects for the mediating model. ***: p < 0.001.
Figure 2. Path coefficients and indirect effects for the mediating model. ***: p < 0.001.
Jtaer 19 00062 g002
Jtaer 19 00062 g003
Figure 3. Results of the simple slope analysis on social media use intensity.
Figure 3. Results of the simple slope analysis on social media use intensity.
Jtaer 19 00062 g003
Jtaer 19 00062 g004
Figure 4. Results of the simple slope analysis on age.
Figure 4. Results of the simple slope analysis on age.
Jtaer 19 00062 g004
Jtaer 19 00062 g005
Figure 5. Experimental materials of Study 2.
Figure 5. Experimental materials of Study 2.
Jtaer 19 00062 g005
Jtaer 19 00062 g006
Figure 6. Results of the simple slope analysis in Study 2.
Figure 6. Results of the simple slope analysis in Study 2.
Jtaer 19 00062 g006
Table 1. Discriminant validity of the measurement scales.
Table 1. Discriminant validity of the measurement scales.
VariablesMeanSD1.2.3.4.
1. SPSM3.600.630.64
2. SMUI4.720.830.29 ***0.61
3. SCT3.330.620.21 ***0.13 *0.59
4. CCT3.200.780.19 ***0.050.22 ***0.69
Note 1: Diagonal values are the square root of AVE, whereas the remaining values are correlation coefficients between variables. Note 2: SPSM = self-presentation on social media; SMUI = social media use intensity; SCT = social comparison tendency; CCT = conspicuous consumption tendency. ***: p < 0.001, *: p < 0.05.
Table 2. Total and indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption tendency.
Table 2. Total and indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption tendency.
EffectsβpLLCIULCI
Total Effect0.1920.0000.1130.303
Indirect Effect0.0400.0000.0150.099
Direct Effect0.1520.0020.0690.307
Table 3. Conditional indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption.
Table 3. Conditional indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption.
Media Use IntensityBSELLCIULCI
3.89 (−SD)0.020.02−0.0110.063
4.72 (Mean)0.050.020.0170.096
5.56 (+SD)0.080.030.0320.142
Note: Unstandardized coefficients reported. 95% CIs.
Table 4. Descriptive statistics (scores) of demographic variables.
Table 4. Descriptive statistics (scores) of demographic variables.
VariablesMaleFemaletp
MeanSDMeanSD
1. SPSM3.340.703.770.51−6.860.000
2. SMUI4.550.924.840.75−3.450.001
3. SCT3.310.713.350.57−0.610.540
4. CCT2.930.723.380.77−5.970.000
Note: SPSM = self-presentation on social media; SMUI = social media use intensity; SCT = social comparison tendency; CCT = conspicuous consumption tendency.
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Lu, Y.; Zhao, T.; Song, S.; Song, W. Can Self-Presentation on Social Media Increase Individuals’ Conspicuous Consumption Tendency? A Mixed-Method Empirical Study on WeChat in China. J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res. 2024, 19, 1206-1221. https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer19020062

AMA Style

Lu Y, Zhao T, Song S, Song W. Can Self-Presentation on Social Media Increase Individuals’ Conspicuous Consumption Tendency? A Mixed-Method Empirical Study on WeChat in China. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research. 2024; 19(2):1206-1221. https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer19020062

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lu, Yan, Taiyang Zhao, Siying Song, and Wei Song. 2024. "Can Self-Presentation on Social Media Increase Individuals’ Conspicuous Consumption Tendency? A Mixed-Method Empirical Study on WeChat in China" Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research 19, no. 2: 1206-1221. https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer19020062

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop