Social Comparison or Emotional Contagion?: Comparing Two Mechanisms Underlying the Association between Instagram Browsing and Subjective Well-being

Abstract

The present study examined the relative effects of two mechanisms – social comparison and emotional contagion – underlying the association between Instagram browsing and individuals subjective well-being. Previous studies employed a single scale of information valence when comparing these two mechanisms, yet this approach may have failed to accurately capture the effects of social comparison direction. Thus, the current study employed two disparate scales (i.e., information valence scale and comparison directionality scale) to test if two scales can be equated, and if not, which of the two scales better accounts for the effects of social media browsing on well-being. Furthermore, this study examined how differing degrees of psychological closeness between the poster and viewer (i.e., close friends, acquaintances, strangers) moderate the relationship between Instagram browsing and well-being.

Using both laboratory-based (Study 1) and diary (Study 2) methodologies, the present study lends support for emotional contagion. That is, people experience more positive affect and less negative affect when they are exposed to more positive posts, regardless of whether the posts feature upward or downward social comparison information. In addition, exposure to positive posts enhanced life satisfaction via decreasing negative affect. Meanwhile, exposure to upward social comparison information evoked envy, yet this feeling did not affect life satisfaction. However, across two studies, exposure to upward information was negatively associated with life satisfaction. Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that browsing others positive or upward comparison eliciting posts per se may not deteriorate peoples affective well-being, yet the negative impact of engaging in upward social comparison may offset the positive effect of emotional contagion on peoples cognitive well-being. Furthermore, there were no significant interaction effects between Instagram browsing and psychological closeness.