The benefits and pitfalls of humblebragging in social media advertising: the moderating role of the celebrity versus influencer

Abstract

While consumers seem to perceive humblebragging as an effective self-presentation strategy that allows them to subtly promote their positive aspects, some humblebragging practices have invited negative reactions in social media. Indeed, prior research suggests that humblebragging elicits negative responses and, hence, is less preferable than straightforward bragging. The present research seeks to examine the conditions under which humblebragging might be more effective by exploring the celebrity versus influencer in the context of social media brand endorsement. Three experimental studies show that a humblebragging (vs. bragging) endorsement increases positive brand attitude when performed by a celebrity, but decreases positive brand attitude when performed by an influencer. Building upon benign moral violation theory, this research shows that these effects are mediated by amusement and irritation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Humblebragging
• social media
• influencer
• amusement
• irritation

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes on contributors

Widya Paramita is a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. Her research revolves around socia marketing and ethical decision making in both consumer and employee contexts. Her works have been published in major marketing journals, including Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Felix Septianto is a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia. He broadly investigates the influences of feelings and emotions on consumer decision making, particularly in the context of advertising, consumer ethics, prosocial and pro-environmental behaviours. His works have been published in major marketing journals, including Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and Journal of Advertising.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Notes

1 In addition, prior research has suggested that age, gender, and familiarity with the endorser might influence our predictions (Schouten, Janssen, and Verspaget 2020). Hence, we conducted a similar model (2 bragging type × 2 endorser type) and included age, gender, and endorser familiarity as covariates. The results showed non-significant effects of age (p = .214), gender (p = .889), and familiarity (p = .913).

2 As in Study 1a, we conducted a similar model (2 bragging type × 2 endorser type) and included age, gender, and endorser familiarity as covariates. Results showed non-significant effects of age (p = .384) and gender (p = .876). However, we found a significant effect of familiarity, such that a higher familiarity with the endorser led to more positive brand attitudes (F(1, 199) = 5.54, p = .020, η_p² = .027). However and more importantly, the interaction between bragging type and endorser type remained significant (F(1, 199) = 10.58, p = .001, η_p² = .050).

3 Given that our results showed that the conditional indirect effect was significant in one endorser condition but non-significant in the other endorser condition, these results supported Hypotheses 2a and 2b. However, we noted that the indices of moderated mediation were non-significant for both the mediating role of amusement (b = .112, se = .095, 95% CI; −.057 to .317) and irritation (b = .018, se = .055, 95% CI; −.087 to .138), making our results somewhat indecisive with regard to the moderated mediation (Hayes 2015). Therefore, we replicated our findings in Study 3 and demonstrated significant indices of moderated mediation to provide stronger empirical evidence for hypotheses 2a and 2b.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding associated with this research.