Communicating through #hashtags: Influencing perceptions of personality and trust

Abstract

Hashtags are integral to conversations and discussions on social media and are used to communicate emotions and meaning. However, little is known about how hashtags form impressions of social media users' personalities, credibility, and attractiveness. This study utilizes Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT) to examine if impressions can be formed about the sender based on their use of hashtags on social media. A between-subjects post-test-only experimental design was implemented in which participants (N = 322) viewed mock Instagram posts that differed in the number of hashtags utilized (low vs. high) and framing (positive, negative, neutral) and completed assessments on source perceptions of extraversion, neuroticism, narcissism, trustworthiness, and social attractiveness. Posts with a high number of positive hashtags were associated with higher perceptions of extraversion. Posts with positive hashtags made the source perceived as more socially attractive and trustworthy than those with neutral and negative hashtags. This research significantly advances theory by extending tenets of SIPT to understand how hashtags influence person perception on social media.