The Paradoxical Effects of Impression Management on Subsequent Health Choices

Due to the contemporary health-valuing culture, being health-conscious has become a desirable identity. To facilitate creation of this desired identity, people manage their health-identity impression through posting their fitness activities on social media. While impression management is widely studied, few works explicate its implications on self-regulation. Current literature reports inconsistent and conflicting evidence on the relationship between impression management and self-regulation. Furthermore, current studies largely ignore the effects of audience's interpretation of the self-promoter's impression management, the audience's feedback and the impact of the feedback on the self-promoter's subsequent self-regulatory behaviors, specifically subsequent health or fitness choices. Drawing from the impression management literature, this study thus seeks to provide a better understanding of the links between online impression management, feedback from the self-promoter's audience and subsequent health choices. The effects of impression management and the moderation effects of feedback will be tested using field and laboratory experiments.