{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105063"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105063","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Self-presentation on social media – when self-enhancement confronts self-verification in a virtual public space","abstract":"Social media has become an important part of people’s daily life. Every day people frequently switch between the physical world and the digital world created by social media. Recent research has examined the impact of social media on people’s self-evaluation (e.g. Valkenburg, Peter & Schouten, 2006; Vogel, Rose, Roberts & Eckles, 2014; Gonzales & Hancock, 2009). However, there has not been any research that examined this issue from the perspective of psychological motives – that is, what are the underlying motives that drive people to behave in such patterns? Understanding such psychological motives underlying people’s social media use is important because they affect how people evaluate themselves, which further drives their behavior on social media. Three studies reported here suggest that the public nature of social media influences self-enhancement and self-verification, which are two major psychological motives of people’s self-evaluation process. Specifically, it was found that when self-disclosing on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify. In comparison, in the offline world, they both self-enhance and self-verify. Moreover, it was also found that on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify with distant friends. However, they would like to both self-enhance and self-verify with close friends. In addition, implications of the findings in advertising industry are discussed.","abstract_html":"Social media has become an important part of people’s daily life. Every day people frequently switch between the physical world and the digital world created by social media. Recent research has examined the impact of social media on people’s self-evaluation (e.g. Valkenburg, Peter & Schouten, 2006; Vogel, Rose, Roberts & Eckles, 2014; Gonzales & Hancock, 2009). However, there has not been any research that examined this issue from the perspective of psychological motives – that is, what are the underlying motives that drive people to behave in such patterns? Understanding such psychological motives underlying people’s social media use is important because they affect how people evaluate themselves, which further drives their behavior on social media. Three studies reported here suggest that the public nature of social media influences self-enhancement and self-verification, which are two major psychological motives of people’s self-evaluation process. Specifically, it was found that when self-disclosing on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify. In comparison, in the offline world, they both self-enhance and self-verify. Moreover, it was also found that on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify with distant friends. However, they would like to both self-enhance and self-verify with close friends. In addition, implications of the findings in advertising industry are discussed.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Zheng, Anlan"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Communications and Media","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Duff, Brittany","Vargas, Patrick","Yao, Mike","Faber, Ron"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-08-23T20:36:03Z","date_published":"2019-08-23T20:36:03Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:44Z","subjects":["Social media, Self-enhancement, Self-verification, Self-presentation"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Anlan Zheng"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105063","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Duff, Brittany","Vargas, Patrick","Yao, Mike","Faber, Ron"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Zheng, Anlan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-08-23T20:36:03Z","2021-08-24T09:15:24Z","2019-04-19","2019-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communications and Media"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Social media, Self-enhancement, Self-verification, Self-presentation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Anlan Zheng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105063"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Social media has become an important part of people’s daily life. Every day people frequently switch between the physical world and the digital world created by social media. Recent research has examined the impact of social media on people’s self-evaluation (e.g. Valkenburg, Peter & Schouten, 2006; Vogel, Rose, Roberts & Eckles, 2014; Gonzales & Hancock, 2009). However, there has not been any research that examined this issue from the perspective of psychological motives – that is, what are the underlying motives that drive people to behave in such patterns? Understanding such psychological motives underlying people’s social media use is important because they affect how people evaluate themselves, which further drives their behavior on social media. Three studies reported here suggest that the public nature of social media influences self-enhancement and self-verification, which are two major psychological motives of people’s self-evaluation process. Specifically, it was found that when self-disclosing on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify. In comparison, in the offline world, they both self-enhance and self-verify. Moreover, it was also found that on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify with distant friends. However, they would like to both self-enhance and self-verify with close friends. In addition, implications of the findings in advertising industry are discussed.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01","The student, Anlan Zheng, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-18 at 21:10.","The student, Anlan Zheng, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-18 at 21:17.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-19 at 14:45.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13770 on 2019-08-22 at 15:07:27","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:36:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 ZHENG-DISSERTATION-2019.pdf: 5723951 bytes, checksum: d80cc273e1d6296b1a55bbb2428946c6 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4208 bytes, checksum: 2ca0f09bbc10edd44fcd796b7787d777 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-04-19","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 112182 Lift date: 2021-08-23T20:36:18Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 112182 on 2021-08-24T09:15:24Z."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Self-presentation on social media – when self-enhancement confronts self-verification in a virtual public space"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Duff, Brittany","Vargas, Patrick","Yao, Mike","Faber, Ron"],"dc:creator":["Zheng, Anlan"],"dc:date":["2019-08-23T20:36:03Z","2021-08-24T09:15:24Z","2019-04-19","2019-05"],"dc:description":["Social media has become an important part of people’s daily life. Every day people frequently switch between the physical world and the digital world created by social media. Recent research has examined the impact of social media on people’s self-evaluation (e.g. Valkenburg, Peter & Schouten, 2006; Vogel, Rose, Roberts & Eckles, 2014; Gonzales & Hancock, 2009). However, there has not been any research that examined this issue from the perspective of psychological motives – that is, what are the underlying motives that drive people to behave in such patterns? Understanding such psychological motives underlying people’s social media use is important because they affect how people evaluate themselves, which further drives their behavior on social media. Three studies reported here suggest that the public nature of social media influences self-enhancement and self-verification, which are two major psychological motives of people’s self-evaluation process. Specifically, it was found that when self-disclosing on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify. In comparison, in the offline world, they both self-enhance and self-verify. Moreover, it was also found that on social media, people tend to only self-enhance but not self-verify with distant friends. However, they would like to both self-enhance and self-verify with close friends. In addition, implications of the findings in advertising industry are discussed.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01","The student, Anlan Zheng, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-18 at 21:10.","The student, Anlan Zheng, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-18 at 21:17.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-19 at 14:45.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13770 on 2019-08-22 at 15:07:27","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:36:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 ZHENG-DISSERTATION-2019.pdf: 5723951 bytes, checksum: d80cc273e1d6296b1a55bbb2428946c6 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4208 bytes, checksum: 2ca0f09bbc10edd44fcd796b7787d777 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-04-19","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 112182 Lift date: 2021-08-23T20:36:18Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 112182 on 2021-08-24T09:15:24Z."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105063"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2019 Anlan Zheng"],"dc:subject":["Social media, Self-enhancement, Self-verification, Self-presentation"],"dc:title":["Self-presentation on social media – when self-enhancement confronts self-verification in a virtual public space"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Communications and Media"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:44Z"}