Coping with Social Media Envy in Luxury Consumption: The Role of Social Networking Site Actions

Abstract

Because social networking sites facilitate social comparison, consumer envy becomes inevitable among social media users. Drawing on social comparison and coping theories, this study examines how different types of envy lead to consumers’ distinct behaviors on social networking sites, some of which are self-directed and focus on self-enhancement, while others are either positive or negative interactions with the envied person. Employing both the contexts of luxury product and service sharing experiences on Instagram, the authors consistently show in four studies that whereas consumers who experience benign envy are more likely to interact with the envied person positively, such as liking the envied person’s posts, those who experience malicious envy are more likely to engage in negative interactions, such as unfollowing the envied person. Benign enviers are more likely to engage in self-enhancement actions on social networking sites, such as posting images/videos more frequently, compared with malicious enviers. When coping with the negative feeling of envy, positive interactions help benign enviers improve their sense of belonging. In contrast, malicious enviers tend to engage in maladaptive coping behaviors, such as engaging in negative interactions with the envied, which may diminish their sense of belonging and lead to negative self-perceptions.