Can Self-Presentation on Social Media Increase Individuals’ Conspicuous Consumption Tendency? A Mixed-Method Empirical Study on WeChat in China

: Previous studies have mainly focused on the impact of social media self-presentation on individuals’ happiness and mental health, whereas few have attended to its potential influence on consumer behavior. A mixed-method empirical study with an online survey ( N = 408) and an experimental study ( N = 160) investigated the effects of social media self-presentation on individuals’ conspicuous consumption in China. We found that consumers’ self-presentation behavior on social media promoted tendencies for social comparison, thereby enhancing their conspicuous consumption. However, compared with individuals using social media less often, self-presentation had a more significant impact on the social comparison tendencies of users who used social media more often. Our study explains why individuals’ self-presentation on social media increases their conspicuous consumption tendencies. The study results contribute to the existing knowledge of how consumers’ behavior on social media affects their product preferences.


Introduction
Online social communication has become an integral part of daily life for most members of the general public.Social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Facebook have not only become essential means by which people obtain information and maintain interpersonal relationships but also represent an important field for users' self-presentation by sharing their views and information about their life to create desirable impressions [1].In the existing literature on self-presentation on social media, researchers have mainly focused on its impact on individuals' happiness and mental health [2][3][4], whereas some have investigated its impact on users' self-concept and social relationships, such as self-esteem, self-concept clarity, body image, friendship development, and popularity [5][6][7][8][9][10][11].However, relatively few studies have examined its potential influence on consumer behavior.
Exploring the influence of social media self-presentation on consumer behavior is valuable because mobile devices have considerably integrated people's daily consumption scenarios with social media usage habits.Switching from social media to an online shopping platform is nearly instantaneous.Moreover, shopping platforms invest in advertisements on various social media platforms, making it easy for consumers to directly enter the purchasing channel through links [12].Recently, increasing numbers of social media influencers have been directly recommending products on their social media accounts [13][14][15][16].Therefore, any actions taken by users on social media, including self-presentation, may immediately affect their shopping decisions.
While social media self-presentation is a way to show oneself to others, conspicuous consumption, defined as the behavior of displaying personal property to show wealth and social status [17], plays a similar role.Since 2016, China has become the second largest luxury market in the world [18].China has been the fastest growing country in the world for luxury consumption for many years, accounting for 30% of global luxury purchases in 2016 [19].In 2023, Chinese luxury consumption accounted for about 38% of the world's total.McKinsey & Company also expects the total market share of the global luxury goods market to reach USD 397 billion by 2025, which will be largely driven by China [20].In Chinese culture, consumption is seen more as a tool to serve the needs of a higher level of society than as an activity, which is referred to as "face consumption" [21].Because of the personalized and symbolic characteristics of luxury goods, which correspond to the "face" culture in traditional Chinese cultural values, conspicuous consumption, which is dominated by luxury goods, has become an important motivation and manifestation of Chinese people's consumption behavior [22].Therefore, this study chooses the context of China for research, positing that the development and use of social media in recent years have further strengthened the conspicuous consumption tendencies of Chinese consumers.
Using a mixed-method empirical study with an online survey (Study 1) and an experimental study (Study 2), this study attempts to address the following research questions.First, in the context of Chinese culture, does social media self-presentation affect individuals' conspicuous consumption tendencies?Second, what is the psychological mechanism underlying this effect?Considering the inevitable social comparison in the process of both self-presentation and conspicuous consumption [6,[23][24][25], this study explores the mediating role of social comparison in the relationship between social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption.Third, does consumers' use habit of social media, such as social media use intensity, moderate the effect of social media self-presentation on individuals' conspicuous consumption tendencies?The exploration of the above research questions will contribute to the literature in the following ways.This paper enriches the theoretical research in the field of social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption, revealing the underling mechanism from the perspective of social comparison theory.It further provides practical implications for corporations regarding social media marketing.

Self-Presentation on Social Media and Social Comparison
Self-presentation, a common phenomenon in interpersonal communication, is the conscious process of impression control in which people try to establish, change, or maintain their image in the eyes of others [26,27].Self-presentation theory suggests that people have a general tendency to engage in socially approved behaviors and maintain positive selfimages and impressions [28].With the popularity and development of the Internet, social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, and Facebook have become important channels for individuals' self-presentations.Social media users engage in this process by sharing their views and information about their status to create desirable impressions [1].Individuals often publish self-presentation-related information on social media platforms.They share their personal updates or views through photos, texts, and videos.Simultaneously, users see self-presentation-related information posted by others on their social networks.
Researchers have shown that everyone tries to show positive and enviable aspects of their life on social media [29,30].Many social media users present engaging images by posting content about enjoying delicious food and tourism activities.People also present their high quality of life by sharing posts about new products or luxuries they have purchased.They present evidence of good interpersonal relationships by displaying friend gatherings and posting about gifts they have received.Driven by the motivation of presenting a positive self to others, individuals tend to seek confirmation; after posting self-presentation-related content on social media, they pay attention to the number of comments or likes that others give to their content [31].
Psychological research has found that social comparison, or the means by which individuals evaluate their abilities and opinions by comparing themselves with others [32], is an important way for individuals to obtain information about themselves.Festinger's [33] social comparison theory posits that humans have a natural drive to compare themselves to others to evaluate where they stand.He states that people are especially inclined to engage in social comparison behavior when objective means for self-evaluation are unavailable [33].Individuals commonly engage in social comparison in daily life, and their objects of social comparison are often the people with whom they have contact [33,34].Social comparison is a spontaneous process as long as individuals are exposed to others' information [35].Previous studies have found that it is easy for individuals to compare the statuses and perspectives with their own when using social media because the content posted by other users easily becomes reference information [36,37].Krasnova et al. [38] found that users viewing others' profiles online may lead to increased social comparisons.People have reported that they use social networking sites to make social comparisons, specifically while viewing others' posts and photos [39].This indicates that others' self-presented information in social media further promotes individuals' social comparison tendencies.Frison and Eggermont [40] found that individuals exposed to others' online self-presentation may develop a perception that others are better off.When social media posts show others enjoying traveling, the image may contrast with the viewer's current non-free status.Likewise, social media posts of other users' new and enviable goods may contrast with an individual's current financial constraints, whereas posted scenes of pleasant gatherings of friends may contrast with one's current sense of loneliness.Individuals also realize "they are happier and having better lives than I am" after comparing themselves to other users who seem to be living better lives [41].Therefore, others' self-presentation information communicated via social media may induce strong social comparisons among individuals and substantially impact both their psychological state and behavior.
While previous studies have demonstrated that viewing others' self-presentation information on social media can promote individuals' social comparison tendencies, fewer studies have explored whether posting self-related content can improve such tendencies.We argue that this contrast may be even stronger when individuals post their self-presented content on social media because they may unconsciously compare their posted statuses to those of other users.Compared with simply browsing others' statuses, individuals' selfpresentation on social media can induce additional involvement and lead the individuals to be more worried and concerned about their image in the eyes of others and thus seek more social comparison information.Online selfie posting is one method of self-presentation in social media [42]; relative to taking photos for oneself, taking photos for sharing with others (posting on social media) increases self-presentational concerns [43].After women display their selfies on social media, they are more inclined to make social comparisons with their peers regarding appearances [23].At the same time, after individuals post a status on social media, they pay more attention to the feedback of others [31,44], such as the number and content of likes and comments.This feedback can reflect the popularity of individuals on social media as well as their social capabilities, making it an easily obtainable source of information for social comparison.Therefore, we assume that consumers' self-presentation on social media may promote their tendency to make social comparisons.

Social Comparison Tendency and Conspicuous Consumption
Conspicuous consumption refers to the behavior of obtaining and displaying one's property to show wealth and social status [17].Griskevicius et al. [45] further pointed out that conspicuous consumption is the act of spending money to gain status and impress others by indicating that one has enough money to purchase frivolous and wasteful goods.Conspicuous consumption includes not only the consumption of luxury goods but also all types of consumption that can arouse the attention of oneself and impress others.It is a type of self-centered and showy behavior.With its popularity and characteristics of publicity, efficiency, timely feedback, and extensive audience, social media has become an important channel for people to display conspicuous consumption [46][47][48].People tend to display conspicuous consumption behavior in cyberspace and are influenced by other individuals' behaviors in the network.Luxury-good buyers expect to receive non-financial values (i.e., social status, social approval, and a sense of empowerment and complacency) by sharing their brand experience on social media [49][50][51].This process inevitably evokes social comparison between consumers and others.
Previous studies have found that social comparison can lead to conspicuous consumption behavior [52,53].This is because in social comparison, individuals are often exposed to information that others are better than themselves, thus experiencing self-threat [54].Consumers tend to feel inferior after making comparisons to those who possess advantages over them [33,55].As inferiority is an aversive psychological state [56], consumers are motivated to alleviate it and restore a sense of superiority.To compensate for this threat, lighten their unpleasant psychological state, and present a positive self-image, consumers choose to purchase goods, including through conspicuous consumption, that symbolize their higher social status [24,54,57,58].Previous studies have found that in a consumption context, the superiority goal can be achieved by acquiring and/or displaying costly material possessions [59].This can also be explained by the "keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" effect, in which consumers compare what they have to what others have, realize they are worse off, and strive to reduce the possession gap by acquiring conspicuously displayed products [52,[60][61][62][63]. Specifically, when individuals realize that a gap exists between themselves and groups that are more advantaged in some respect, they tend to show others their wealth and status by purchasing products with conspicuous characteristics, thus compensating for the threat to their self-esteem caused by social comparison and restoring their comparative advantage [64,65].Some studies have confirmed that even though the fields of comparison are non-material (such as ability and popularity), consumers increase their conspicuous consumption tendencies because conspicuous material goods can help an individual gain a relative comparative advantage [24].
Based on the above logic, in the context of social media use, consumers' selfpresentation in social media could promote tendencies of social comparison.Additionally, individuals may prefer products with more conspicuous characteristics to obtain comparative advantages.Hence, we proposed the following hypotheses: H1.Self-presentation on social media can enhance consumers' conspicuous consumption tendencies.
H2. Social comparison mediates the impact of social media self-presentation on consumers' conspicuous consumption.Specifically, self-presentation on social media can promote consumers' social comparison tendency and, thus, increase their conspicuous consumption tendencies.

The Moderating Role of Social Media Use Intensity
We propose that consumers' social media use intensity moderates the above effects.Specifically, users with high social media use intensity and those with mild use intensity differ in their social comparison and conspicuous consumption tendencies after posting self-presentation content.Heavy social media users often obtain information through social media and pay more attention to the content posted by others, which serves as an essential source for their social comparison [66][67][68].In contrast, light social media users, even though they post self-presentation-related content, have fewer opportunities to make social comparisons because they pay less attention to feedback and the content of other users.According to the above logic, the following hypothesis was proposed: H3: Individuals' social media use intensity positively moderates the impact of their social media self-presentation on their social comparison and conspicuous consumption tendencies.
According to the proposed hypotheses, we propose the theoretical framework of our study in Figure 1.
According to the proposed hypotheses, we propose the theoretical framework of our study in Figure 1.

Participants
For Study 1, we recruited 408 participants (59.8% female, 17-52 years old, Mage = 28.85 ± 7.43) on the Credamo data collection platform in China.Each participant completed an electronic questionnaire in exchange for a monetary payment.

Self-Presentation on Social Media
We used the scale by Yang et al. [69] to measure participants' self-presentation on social media.Because the most used social media in China is WeChat, we replaced "Facebook" in the original questionnaire with "WeChat."The questionnaire included seventeen statements (Please see Appendix A for detail), such as "I openly share my emotions on social media" and "I display photos that involve a variety of images of me on social media."The participants were asked to evaluate their agreement with these statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree).The average score of the seventeen items was calculated (α = 0.902); the higher the score, the higher their self-presentation on social media tendency.

Social Media Use Intensity
The eight-item scale by Ellison et al. [26] was used to measure participants' social media use intensity; "Facebook" from the original questionnaire was replaced with "WeChat."The first two items asked for the number of friends the participants had on social media and the time they spent on social media.The following sample statements about the participants' social media usage habits were included on the questionnaire: "WeChat has become part of my daily routine" and "I would be sorry if WeChat shut down (Please see Appendix B for detail)."A 7-point Likert scale was used for these six items (1 = totally disagree, 7 = totally agree).The higher the score, the higher the social media use intensity of the participants (α = 0.904).

Social Comparison Tendency
The 11-item scale compiled by Gibbons and Buunk [32] was selected to measure social comparison, including items such as "I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people" and "I often compare myself with others with respect to what I have accomplished in life (Please see Appendix C for detail)."Responses were given on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree).The higher the average score, the stronger the participants' social comparison tendency (α = 0.805).

Study 1: Survey Study 3.1. Participants
For Study 1, we recruited 408 participants (59.8% female, 17-52 years old, M age = 28.85 ± 7.43) on the Credamo data collection platform in China.Each participant completed an electronic questionnaire in exchange for a monetary payment.

Self-Presentation on Social Media
We used the scale by Yang et al. [69] to measure participants' self-presentation on social media.Because the most used social media in China is WeChat, we replaced "Facebook" in the original questionnaire with "WeChat."The questionnaire included seventeen statements (Please see Appendix A for detail), such as "I openly share my emotions on social media" and "I display photos that involve a variety of images of me on social media."The participants were asked to evaluate their agreement with these statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree).The average score of the seventeen items was calculated (α = 0.902); the higher the score, the higher their self-presentation on social media tendency.

Social Media Use Intensity
The eight-item scale by Ellison et al. [26] was used to measure participants' social media use intensity; "Facebook" from the original questionnaire was replaced with "WeChat."The first two items asked for the number of friends the participants had on social media and the time they spent on social media.The following sample statements about the participants' social media usage habits were included on the questionnaire: "WeChat has become part of my daily routine" and "I would be sorry if WeChat shut down (Please see Appendix B for detail)."A 7-point Likert scale was used for these six items (1 = totally disagree, 7 = totally agree).The higher the score, the higher the social media use intensity of the participants (α = 0.904).

Social Comparison Tendency
The 11-item scale compiled by Gibbons and Buunk [32] was selected to measure social comparison, including items such as "I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people" and "I often compare myself with others with respect to what I have accomplished in life (Please see Appendix C for detail)."Responses were given on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree).The higher the average score, the stronger the participants' social comparison tendency (α = 0.805).

Conspicuous Consumption Tendency
The five-item questionnaire developed by Shaikh and Gummerum [70] was used to measure participants' conspicuous consumption tendencies.Sample items are "I would like to own expensive luxuries that communicate class and prestige" and "I feel stylish and classy if I am wearing branded clothes and accessories (Please see Appendix D for detail)."The participants were asked to evaluate their agreement with these statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree).The higher the average score, the higher the participants' conspicuous consumption tendency (α = 0.744).

Discriminant Validity
The Fornell-Larcker test was used to analyze the discriminant validity.As shown in Table 1, all correlations between the latent constructs were less than the square root of the AVE, which suggests a desirable discriminant validity of the variables.

Main Effect and Mediation Effect
All analyses were conducted using the bootstrap method by the PROCESS macro developed by Hayes [71] in SPSS 25.0.We used Model 4 of PROCESS to examine H1 and H2 in which p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.This model can conveniently analyze the effect of independent variable on independent variable (i.e., Total Effect in Table 2) and their mediating effects (i.e., Indirect Effect and Direct Effect in Table 2) simultaneously and is widely used in the data analysis of consumer behavior research [72,73].As shown in Table 2, the results showed that the total effect was positively significant (β = 0.192, p < 0.001).This indicates that self-presentation on social media can improve individuals' conspicuous consumption tendency, which verified H1.The indirect effect of social comparison tendency between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption tendency was also significant (β = 0.040, 95% CI = 0.015-0.099).Specifically, self-presentation on social media positively affected social comparison tendency (β = 0.209, p < 0.001), whereas social comparison tendency positively affected conspicuous consumption tendency (β = 0.191, p < 0.001).Hence, H2 was also verified.The mediating model is presented in Figure 2.

The Moderated Mediation Model
We used Model 7 of Hayes's [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model.The results reveal that social media use intensity had a significant moderation effect on the relationship between self-presentation on social media and social comparison tendency (β = 0.234, p < 0.001).The results of the simple slope analysis in Figure 3 also show that when participants' social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was not significant (B = 0.07, p = 0.231).However, when participants' social media use intensity was higher (+SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was positively significant (B = 0.36, p < 0.001; see Figure 3), and a similar pattern was observed for the mediation effect of social comparison.As shown in Table 3, the mediation effect was not significant (B = 0.02, 95% CI = −0.011-0.063)when social media use intensity was lower (−SD), but it became significant (B= 0.08, 95% CI = 0.032-0.142)at higher levels of social media use intensity (+SD).Hence, H3 was verified.
We used Model 7 of Hayes's [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model.The results reveal that social media use intensity had a significant moderation effect on the relationship between self-presentation on social media and social comparison tendency (β = 0.234, p < 0.001).The results of the simple slope analysis in Figure 3 also show that when participants' social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was not significant (B = 0.07, p = 0.231).However, when participants' social media use intensity was higher (+SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was positively significant (B = 0.36, p < 0.001; see Figure 3), and a similar pattern was observed for the mediation effect of social comparison.As shown in Table 3, the mediation effect was not significant (B = 0.02, 95% CI = −0.011-0.063)when social media use intensity was lower (−SD), but it became significant (B= 0.08, 95% CI = 0.032-0.142)at higher levels of social media use intensity (+SD).Hence, H3 was verified.

The Effect of Demographic Variables
We first conducted a series of independent sample t-tests to analysis the differences between genders.The results in Table 4 reveal that female participants had significantly higher scores than male participants for social media self-presentation (M male = 3.34, SD = 0.70; M female = 3.77, SD = 0.51, p < 0.001), social media use intensity (M male = 4.55, SD = 0.92; M female = 4.84, SD = 0.75, p = 0.001), and conspicuous consumption tendency (M male = 2.93, SD = 0.72; M female = 3.38, SD = 0.77, p < 0.001), but there was no discernible difference on social comparison tendency between female and male participants.We also used Model 1 of Hayes [71] to examine the moderation effects of gender between the independent and dependent variables.The results show that the moderation effect of gender on social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption tendency was not significant (CI = −0.12-0.36,p = 0.34).Second, we also analyzed the effect of age on the variables using Pearson Correlation.The results showed a significant positive correlation between age and social comparison tendency.Then, we further analyzed the moderation role of age between independent and dependent variables using Model 1 of Hayes [71].The results showed that the moderation effect of age between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption tendency was marginally significant (CI = −0.002-0.03,p = 0.059).The results of the simple slope analysis (see Figure 4) show that when participants' age was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption was not significant (p = 0.083).However, there was a positive significant impact (p < 0.001) when participants' age was at a higher level (+SD).
social comparison tendency between female and male participants.We also used Model 1 of Hayes [71] to examine the moderation effects of gender between the independent and dependent variables.The results show that the moderation effect of gender on social media self-presentation and conspicuous consumption tendency was not significant (CI = −0.12-0.36,p = 0.34).Second, we also analyzed the effect of age on the variables using Pearson Correlation.The results showed a significant positive correlation between age and social comparison tendency.Then, we further analyzed the moderation role of age between independent and dependent variables using Model 1 of Hayes [71].The results showed that the moderation effect of age between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption tendency was marginally significant (CI = −0.002-0.03,p = 0.059).The results of the simple slope analysis (see Figure 4) show that when participants' age was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption was not significant (p = 0.083).However, there was a positive significant impact (p < 0.001) when participants' age was at a higher level (+SD).

Participants
For Study 2, we adopted a single factor between-subject design (self-presentation group vs. control group).A total of 180 participants were recruited from a university in China in exchange for a monetary payment (47.91% female, 16-23 years old, M age = 20.37 ± 1.85).

Procedure
The participants were first asked to complete the same social media use intensity questionnaire employed in Study 1 (α = 0.791).Next, each participant was randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions.The participants in the self-presentation group were asked to post content describing their recent state along with a photo of themselves on WeChat Moments.Control group participants were asked to forward an article from any WeChat official account in WeChat Moments.To fully utilize the experimental manipulation, we sent an electronic questionnaire to the participants 24 h later to measure their conspicuous consumption tendency.Previous studies have found that the size of a logo on a branded product can reflect its conspicuousness [59].Therefore, taking the same approach as Zheng et al. [24], we measured participants' conspicuous consumption tendency by giving them a choice between an item with a large logo and one with a small logo.We told the participants that, in appreciation for their participation, we would give a Nike hat to 10 lucky people randomly selected from the participants, and they could choose between the pictures of two hats, one with a larger Nike logo and the other with a smaller Nike logo (see Figure 5).Participants who chose a hat with a large Nike Logo had a stronger conspicuous consumption tendency.If a participant won the lottery, we would mail them the chosen hat.We used the scale used in Study 1 to measure the social comparison tendency of the participants (α = 0.821).
signed to one of the two experimental conditions.The participants in the self-presentation group were asked to post content describing their recent state along with a photo of themselves on WeChat Moments.Control group participants were asked to forward an article from any WeChat official account in WeChat Moments.To fully utilize the experimental manipulation, we sent an electronic questionnaire to the participants 24 h later to measure their conspicuous consumption tendency.Previous studies have found that the size of a logo on a branded product can reflect its conspicuousness [59].Therefore, taking the same approach as Zheng et al. [24], we measured participants' conspicuous consumption tendency by giving them a choice between an item with a large logo and one with a small logo.We told the participants that, in appreciation for their participation, we would give a Nike hat to 10 lucky people randomly selected from the participants, and they could choose between the pictures of two hats, one with a larger Nike logo and the other with a smaller Nike logo (see Figure 5).Participants who chose a hat with a large Nike Logo had a stronger conspicuous consumption tendency.If a participant won the lottery, we would mail them the chosen hat.We used the scale used in Study 1 to measure the social comparison tendency of the participants (α = 0.821).

Main Effect and Mediation Effect
The results show that more self-presentation group participants chose the hat with the big logo compared to the control group participants (73.3% vs. 57.8%;χ 2 = 4.82, p = 0.028).This result indicates that self-presentation on social media promotes consumers' conspicuous consumption tendency; thus, H1 was again verified.We used the same Bootstrap method and Model 4 as in Study 1 to examine mediation effects [71].The results revealed a significant mediation effect for social comparison (β = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.035-0.564).Specifically, social media self-presentation (self-presentation = 1, control group = 0) positively affected social comparison tendency (β = 0.394, p < 0.000), and social comparison tendency positively affected conspicuous consumption tendency (Big logo = 1, Small logo = 0; β = 0.663, p = 0.021), again verifying H2.

The Moderated Mediation Model
We used Model 7 of Hayes's [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model.The results show that the moderation effect of the social media use intensity between self-presentation on social media and social comparison tendency was significant

Main Effect and Mediation Effect
The results show that more self-presentation group participants chose the hat with the big logo compared to the control group participants (73.3% vs. 57.8%;χ 2 = 4.82, p = 0.028).This result indicates that self-presentation on social media promotes consumers' conspicuous consumption tendency; thus, H1 was again verified.We used the same Bootstrap method and Model 4 as in Study 1 to examine mediation effects [71].The results revealed a significant mediation effect for social comparison (β = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.035-0.564).Specifically, social media self-presentation (self-presentation = 1, control group = 0) positively affected social comparison tendency (β = 0.394, p < 0.000), and social comparison tendency positively affected conspicuous consumption tendency (Big logo = 1, Small logo = 0; β = 0.663, p = 0.021), again verifying H2.

The Moderated Mediation Model
We used Model 7 of Hayes's [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model.The results show that the moderation effect of the social media use intensity between self-presentation on social media and social comparison tendency was significant (β = 0.376, p = 0.010).The results of the simple slope analysis showed that when participants' social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was not significant (β = 0.144, p = 0.202).However, there was a positive significant impact when participants' social media use intensified (+SD), and the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was positively significant (β = 0.572, p < 0.001; see Figure 6).The meditation effect of social comparison also showed a similar pattern.The meditation effect was not significant (β = 0.10, 95% CI = −0.075-0.264)when the social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), and it became significant (β = 0.379, 95% CI = 0.058-0.800)at a higher level (+SD), again verifying H3.
was a positive significant impact when participants' social media use intensified (+SD), and the effect of social media self-presentation on social comparison was positively significant (β = 0.572, p < 0.001; see Figure 6).The meditation effect of social comparison also showed a similar pattern.The meditation effect was not significant (β = 0.10, 95% CI = −0.075-0.264)when the social media use intensity was at a lower level (−SD), and it became significant (β = 0.379, 95% CI = 0.058-0.800)at a higher level (+SD), again verifying H3.

Theoretical Contribution
The theoretical contributions of this study relative to the existing literature mainly manifest in the following ways.First, this research established a significant positive relationship between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption.Although some studies have demonstrated that people sometimes display their conspicuous consumption and conspicuous pro-social behavior in social media environments [1,74,75], there is a lack of research on how consumers' behavior on social media affects their product preferences in daily life.Studies in the business field have attended to the fact that the self-presentation of celebrities on social media promotes consumers' purchase intention of luxury brands endorsed by celebrities [76,77].However, whether consumers' selfpresentation behavior promotes their conspicuous consumption tendency has not been sufficiently investigated.Through a survey and an experimental study, we found that consumers' self-presentation on social media could affect their conspicuous consumption tendencies in daily life, which provides an interactive perspective on consumers' online usage habits and offline consumption behavior based on the existing literature.
Second, although previous studies have revealed a relationship between social comparison and conspicuous consumption [24], their primary focus has been on social comparison situations in daily life rather than online situations, and they have overlooked how consumers' social media use habits affect their social comparison and conspicuous consumption behaviors.The current study found that social comparison, which affects an individual's conspicuous consumption, could also be derived from their use of social media.At the same time, this study expands the scope of application of social comparison theory and further summarizes previous studies on the use of social media on social comparison behavior, suggesting that consumers' self-presentation, not only offline but also online, can promote their social comparison tendencies.

Theoretical Contribution
The theoretical contributions of this study relative to the existing literature mainly manifest in the following ways.First, this research established a significant positive relationship between self-presentation on social media and conspicuous consumption.Although some studies have demonstrated that people sometimes display their conspicuous consumption and conspicuous pro-social behavior in social media environments [1,74,75], there is a lack of research on how consumers' behavior on social media affects their product preferences in daily life.Studies in the business field have attended to the fact that the self-presentation of celebrities on social media promotes consumers' purchase intention of luxury brands endorsed by celebrities [76,77].However, whether consumers' self-presentation behavior promotes their conspicuous consumption tendency has not been sufficiently investigated.Through a survey and an experimental study, we found that consumers' self-presentation on social media could affect their conspicuous consumption tendencies in daily life, which provides an interactive perspective on consumers' online usage habits and offline consumption behavior based on the existing literature.
Second, although previous studies have revealed a relationship between social comparison and conspicuous consumption [24], their primary focus has been on social comparison situations in daily life rather than online situations, and they have overlooked how consumers' social media use habits affect their social comparison and conspicuous consumption behaviors.The current study found that social comparison, which affects an individual's conspicuous consumption, could also be derived from their use of social media.At the same time, this study expands the scope of application of social comparison theory and further summarizes previous studies on the use of social media on social comparison behavior, suggesting that consumers' self-presentation, not only offline but also online, can promote their social comparison tendencies.
Third, previous studies on the use intensity of social media have primarily focused on its relationship with consumers' emotions and mental health [67,68].However, this study found that social media use intensity could moderate the relationship between consumers' social media self-presentation and social comparison tendencies.Even though consumers with weak social media use intensity post self-presentation content on social media, their social comparison tendencies and conspicuous consumption behaviors are not affected.This finding can enrich the literature on social media use intensity.

Practical Implications
The primary practical implications of this study are as follows.
For individuals, due to its popularity, people are used to presenting themselves on social media.Previous studies have revealed positive effects of social media selfpresentation, such as promoting prosocial behavior, enhancing adolescents' self-esteem, and promoting individual self-identity [9,69,75].However, this study found that selfpresentation on social media could enhance individuals' social comparison, potentially leading to their irrational tendency toward conspicuous consumption.This may result in a greater financial burden to consumers, especially for individuals with low socio-economic statuses and financial constraints.Compared with consumers of a high subjective social class, consumers with a low perception of subjective social class have a stronger tendency toward conspicuous consumption [78].Another important finding of this study is that a low social media use intensity can mitigate the impact of social media self-presentation on consumers' conspicuous consumption behavior.Therefore, it is wise for individuals who often post self-presentation content on social media to use social media sparingly.
For corporations, the findings provide implications regarding social media marketing.Social media sites are essentially interactive platforms with built-in interactive tools including hashtags.As an important form of interactive marketing, social media marketing has been proven to promote the increase in corporate profits and consumer participation in many countries and regions [79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86].As mentioned above, consumption is seen more as a tool to serve the needs of a higher level of society than as an activity in Chinese culture, which is referred to as "face consumption" [21].Influenced by face culture, Chinese consumers are more inclined to compare themselves with people around them in daily life, that is, they are susceptible to the "keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" effect [52].According to the conclusions of the current study, social media self-presentation exacerbates such effects.Marketing practitioners, especially those selling conspicuous products, should attend to social media as an important marketing channel in China.The findings of this study may be good news for businesses selling conspicuous products because they can promote consumers' purchase intentions by enhancing their influence on social media and encouraging potential consumers to present themselves on social media.In addition, enterprises can employ key opinion leaders (social media celebrities) to make self-presentations on social media in a way that promotes imitation by consumers, thereby enhancing consumers' purchase willingness.

Limitations and Future Directions
First, this study found that self-presentation on social media could promote individuals' conspicuous consumption behavior.However, the opposite may also be true; that is, when individuals buy or use a conspicuous product, they may be more likely to present themselves on social media.Future research can focus on such related issues.Second, this study focused on the moderation role of social media use intensity, which is a boundary condition related to user habits.However, consumers' personal characteristics, such as materialistic values and self-esteem, may also work as moderators between self-presentation on social media and consumers' conspicuous consumption.Future research can examine the role of these variables.Third, social media in this study was limited to WeChat; however, the privacy of each social media varies.WeChat Moments is only visible to acquaintances, whereas Weibo is relatively more open, and its contents can be promoted to strangers.Consumers' conspicuous behaviors may change across online social platforms, and future research can explore the differences in conspicuous behavior on social media with different degrees of privacy.Cross-cultural differences in people's online conspicuous behavior are also worth studying [87].In addition, participants were geographically concentrated in China; thus, generalizability may be limited.Replication with another sample drawn from a wider population could demonstrate generalizability.Finally, before the data analysis, we expected participants of different genders to have significantly different scores in terms of social media self-presentation, social comparison tendency, conspicuous consumption tendency, and social media use intensity.Female participants had significantly higher scores than their male counterparts regarding social media self-presentation, social media 1.
I openly share my emotions on social media.2.
On social media, I share things about myself that could lead to negative judgments of me.

3.
I openly share my opinions on social media.4.
I openly share my weaknesses on social media.5.
I intimately reveal myself when using social media.Positivity 1.I normally reveal bad feelings about myself on social media.* 2.
On social media, I often reveal more undesirable things about myself than desirable things.*3.
I usually disclose negative things about myself on social media.* Authenticity 1.I am sincere when I reveal my own feelings on social media.

2.
My self-presentations on social media are accurate reflections of who I am.

3.
I am not always honest in my self-presentations on social media.* 4.
My social media posts about my feelings are honest.

5.
My social media posts about my experiences are accurate.
I am proud to tell people I'm on WeChat. 5.
WeChat has become part of my daily routine.6.
I feel out of touch when I haven't logged onto WeChat for a while.I often like to talk with others about mutual opinions and experiences.I am attracted to an individual who wears branded clothes and accessories.2.
I feel stylish and classy if I am wearing branded clothes and accessories.

3.
I like luxury goods with logos that associate with my sense of style.4.
I would like to own expensive luxuries that communicate class and prestige.5.
I am interested in or fascinated by people who come from well-to-do backgrounds with heritage and lineage.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Path coefficients and indirect effects for the mediating model.***: p < 0.001 3.4.2.The Moderated Mediation Model We used Model 7 of Hayes's [71] PROCESS to examine the moderated mediation model.The results reveal that social media use intensity had a significant moderation effect on the relationship between self-presentation on social media and social comparison

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Results of the simple slope analysis on social media use intensity.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Results of the simple slope analysis on social media use intensity.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Results of the simple slope analysis on age.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Results of the simple slope analysis on age.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Results of the simple slope analysis in Study 2.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Results of the simple slope analysis in Study 2.

8 .
I often try to find out what others think who face similar problems as I face.9.I always like to know what others in a similar situation would do.10.If I want to learn more about something, I try to find out what others think about it.11.I never consider my situation in life relative to that of other people.* Appendix D. Conspicuous Consumption Tendency Scale 1.

Table 1 .
Discriminant validity of the measurement scales.Diagonal values are the square root of AVE, whereas the remaining values are correlation coefficients between variables.Note 2: SPSM = self-presentation on social media; SMUI = social media use intensity; SCT = social comparison tendency; CCT = conspicuous consumption tendency.

Table 2 .
Total and indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption tendency.

Table 3 .
Conditional indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption.

Table 3 .
Conditional indirect effects of social media self-presentation on conspicuous consumption.
7. I feel I am part of the WeChat community.8.I would be sorry if WeChat shut down.how my loved ones (boy-or girlfriend, family members, etc.) are doing with how others are doing.2. I always pay a lot of attention to how I do things compared with how others do things.3.If I want to find out how well I have done something, I compare what I have done with how others have done.4. I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people.5. I am not the type of person who compares often with others.* 6.I often compare myself with others with respect to what I have accomplished in life.7.