It perhaps feels self-evident that social media plays a huge role in our lives, behaviors, and choices, but new research from the University of Minnesota takes an interesting stance on this seemingly well-explored issue.

The researchers examine the toll social media takes on our self-esteem, and the subsequent impact this has on our consumer behavior.  The authors hypothesize that the negative feedback we so often receive on social media has a knock-on effect on our consumer behavior, especially in terms of increasing our motivation to seek outcomes that prove our competence and decreasing our motivation to seek outcomes that provide enjoyment.

The research, which consisted of four distinct experiments, found that the negative feedback we often receive on social media results in our subsequent actions striving to boost our self-view, even in domains that are unrelated to the original.

“We showed that receiving negative feedback in an unrelated domain motivated consumers to spend more effort searching for product information if their search behavior was driven by the goal to identify the best option and prove their ability to make wise decisions (i.e., a proving goal),” the researchers explain.

Negative feedback

Volunteers who received negative feedback on a creativity task typically responded by searching for new information on options in an unrelated field, especially when this searching was framed as providing them with a clear goal.

Likewise, when the negative feedback impacted on one’s emotional intelligence, the volunteers were more likely to engage in activities that enhanced their intellectual abilities than they were in activities that they would enjoy.

The results suggest that while negative feedback can trigger a desire for self-improvement, repeated criticism can undermine any confidence we may have in our ability to self-improve, thus resulting in people falling into a fog of despair.

“It suggests that although people generally strive to self-improve after negative feedback, too much negative feedback can lead them to seek enjoyment rather than self-improvement, even in areas that have nothing to do with what they failed on previously,” the researchers say.

The authors conclude by stating that firms should be aware that feedback that affects our self-esteem is likely to have a clear impact on our preferences for a given brand, and the engagement we have for that brand.  The data suggests that people were both more willing to search for options after receiving negative feedback, but also more willing to try out the options they found.

The drop of self-esteem as a result of upward social comparison may facilitate the marketing of goods, services, and activities that are associated with proving (but not enjoyment) goals (e.g., via Facebook ads) in the short run but not in the long run.