For Shame! Socially Unacceptable Brand Mentions on Social Media Motivate Consumer Disengagement

Brands invest tremendous resources into building engagement with their customers on social media. But considerably less focus is placed on addressing disengagement, when users actively choose to distance themselves from the brand through reduced posting or even unfollowing. The authors find that the same self–brand connections that lead individuals to defensively protect the brand can also lead them to experience shame vicariously when others mention the brand in socially unacceptable ways. Experiencing vicarious shame motivates them to distance themselves from the brand, driving disengagement. Three mixed-method studies show that a socially unacceptable behavior—using profanity while mentioning the brand—leads highly connected consumers to experience vicarious shame, prompting disengagement motivations and ultimately leading to real-world unfollowing behaviors on social media. The authors also show that proactive moderation behaviors by the brand can attenuate these responses. These results provide insight into the process by which self–brand connection interacts with socially unacceptable brand mentions and suggest a limitation to the insulating effects of strong self–brand connections.