A Picture is Worth a Thousand “Likes”: Examining the Effects of Social Media Content Type and Social Norm Cues on Workout Intentions

Image-based social media hold significant potential for promoting physical activity given their visually appealing content alongside social endorsement metrics such as "likes." However, research on how visual and social cues on social media jointly influence viewers' emotions and behavioral intentions remains limited. Are before-and-after fitspiration posts more inspiring if they receive a lot of "likes"? We examined this question through a 2 (Visual cues: before-and-after comparison vs. after-only) × 2 (Social norm cues: High vs. Low) × 2 (Influencer gender: Female vs. Male) between-subjects experiment. Findings revealed that before-and-after posts enhanced perceived trustworthiness and inspiration, which positively predicted workout intentions. Furthermore, exploratory findings showed that the number of likes moderated the effects of picture type on norm perception and inspiration, subsequently promoting workout intentions.