The influence of social media feedback on consumers’ self-esteem and purchasing behaviour

Abstract

This dissertation not only aims to explore whether social media feedback influences the consumer’s purchasing decision, specifically on the preferences for products that are more or less threatening to the self, as to how social media influences their self-esteem, well-being, mood, feelings of depression and anxiety, self-affirmation and self-threat. Does social media influence consumers and their purchasing decision? According to Catriona Harvey-Jenner (2017), social media provides a short-term hype followed by a crashing low, meaning that, for example, it influences positively people to connect with others at a faster rate (Amedie, J., 2015; Subramanian, K., 2017), but its excessive usage time can become self threatening (Park & Maner, 2009). When it comes to purchasing luxury goods, consumers feel the need to justify themselves, maybe due to their feelings of guilt (Okada, 2005); thus, when its purchase is based upon a moral act, it reduces its negative self-attribution. Based on previous research, social media influences consumers' purchasing behaviour, for example, reading online customer reviews on hedonic or utilitarian products makes them buy more.As such, to assess how social media influence consumers, two different studies from Khan and Dhar (2006) were conducted. In both studies, participants were required to complete a task on the "number of likes" on a post. Additionally, in Study 1, they had to imagine themselves purchasing a pair of designer jeans and a vacuum cleaner (hedonic and utilitarian products, respectively) and, in Study 2, they were between two different pairs of sunglasses (hedonic and utilitarian).

Date of Award	4 Jul 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Niza Braga (Supervisor)