Positive Self-Presentation in Social Networking Sites: From the Perspective of Evolutionary Psychology

Wang Caiyu; Wang Huili

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230622

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (6) : 1447-1453. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230622

Social，Personality & Organizational Psychology

Positive Self-Presentation in Social Networking Sites: From the Perspective of Evolutionary Psychology

Wang Caiyu^1,2, Wang Huili²

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Abstract

Positive Self-presentation in social network sites refers to one’s control of the content of the information and the way it is presented, to affect the formation and change of their impressions on others. With the popularity of the Internet, more female college students prefer to share their life, photos, and other information on social networking sites, presenting a selective image through social networking sites. Do they want to gain the favor of the opposite sex?

On this basis, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of mate attraction on positive self-presentation of female college students in social network sites, and to further explore the mediating role of female student appearance-management behavior between mate attraction and positive self-presentation, and whether the mediating role is regulated by self-esteem. The participants were 659 female college students. Four questionnaires were used in this study, including the mate attraction questionnaire, the positive self-presentation questionnaire, the appearance-management behavior scale, and the self-esteem scale. Cronbach’s alpha for the above measures ranged from .80 to .87, showing good measurement reliabilities.

This study indicated that: (1) Mate attraction had a significantly positive relation with positive self-presentation of female college students in social networking sites. (2) Female students’ appearance-management behavior mediated the relation between mate attraction and their positive self-presentation in social networking sites. Specifically, the mediating effect accounted for 40% of the total effect. (3) The relation between mate attraction fatigue and appearance-management behavior was moderated by self-esteem. That is, with individuals’ self-esteem being strengthened, the influence of mate attraction on the positive self-presentation was also improved. Both low self-esteem group and high self-esteem group, the effect were statistically significant (β = .18, t =3.65, p < .001; β = .37, t = 7.87, p < .001). Therefore, there was a moderated mediation model between mate attraction and positive self-presentation in social networking sites.

From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, based on the gender selection theory and the self-esteem social measurement theory, our findings showed that the positive self-presentation in social networking sites was the communication strategy of female spouses in the Internet era. Our findings contributed to the literature in several ways. First, this research offered a new perspective to study the mediating mechanisms between mate attraction and positive self-presentation. Second, our result concerning the moderating effect of self-esteem contributed to the moderating mechanism between mate attraction and positive self-presentation. More importantly, the integration of the mediating and moderating models provided a more comprehensive and elaborative interpretation of the linkage between mate attraction and positive self-presentation. Furthermore, our findings also had some practical significance.

Key words

mate attraction / positive self-presentation in social network sites / self-esteem

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Wang Caiyu, Wang Huili. Positive Self-Presentation in Social Networking Sites: From the Perspective of Evolutionary Psychology[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(6): 1447-1453 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230622

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