Is that Insta worthy? Predicting content sharing behavior on social media through interpersonal goals

What motivates people to share contents that promote the image of the self versus the well-being of others on social media? Two studies examined how interpersonal goals, namely self-image goals and compassionate goals, influence intentions of sharing different contents on Instagram. According to research on interpersonal goals, self-image goals motivate people to maintain and demonstrate their desirable qualities to others; compassionate goals energize people to promote the well-being of others. Based on this research, we hypothesized that self-image goals (vs. compassionate goals) would propel people to have higher intentions to share contents that are self-promoting relatively more than contents that are prosocial. A correlational study that measured participants’ chronic (i.e., stable) interpersonal goals (Study 1; n = 126) and an experiment that manipulated participants’ incidental (i.e., momentary) interpersonal goals (Study 2; n = 201) confirmed these hypotheses. These results highlight the role of motivation in content sharing on social media and shed light on psychological mechanisms that help shape the social environment on Instagram.