Zero Likes: Virtual Thumbs Down for Belongingness and Self-Esteem

• In Event: Social Cognition, Comparison, and Influence

Abstract

On Facebook, status-updates including pictures, videos, or links can be liked by friends and acquaintances. The presented research investigates the influence of those likes for a status-update on feelings of belongingness and self-esteem and assumes that the absence of likes to status-update poses a need threat to the user. The predictions were tested in a 3 (number of likes zero/two/thirty) x 2 (relationship friends/acquaintance) between-subjects online-experiment (N = 805). Receiving no likes on a status-update had meaningful impact on the participant’s self-esteem and feeling of belongingness. The presented study concentrates on the meaning of not receiving likes on Facebook as temporal need-threat. The experimental manipulation showed that likes are a currency for self-esteem and belonging. It offers distinct data on phenomena like partial ostracism, showing that few likes boost self-esteem and belongingness lesser than many likes.

Authors

• Leonie Heling, U of Mannheim

• Sabine Reich, U of Mannheim

• Peter Vorderer, U of Mannheim