Interpersonal Goal Contagion Through Social Media Posts

This research examined the contagion of interpersonal goals through mock social media posts among Facebook users recruited from Prolific. Two pilot studies were conducted to create Facebook posts that reflected different combinations of self-image and compassionate goals. Then, in the main experiment, 775 participants were randomly assigned to view one of four posts in a 2 (self-image content) × 2 (compassionate content) between-subjects design. After viewing one of the posts, participants completed measures of prosocial and self-promoting posting intentions and inferred goals. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that perceivers inferred the relevant goals (especially in the absence of a competing goal), which in turn, predicted greater adoption of those goals. Specifically, perceivers inferred compassionate goals from compassionate content (even more so when self-image content was low), and inferring stronger compassionate goals predicted greater prosocial sharing intentions. Similarly, perceivers inferred self-image goals from self-image content (even more so when compassionate content was low), and inferring stronger self-image goals predicted greater self-promoting sharing intentions. This research suggests that interpersonal goal contagion can occur while using social media, revealing new pathways through which social media content can affect users.