Abstract
Compared to text, photos are more conspicuous and suited for self-presentation. Although other motivations, such as helping others, partly account for photo sharing in online reviews, we emphasize a model of social status in which a conspicuous display of distant tourism products is used as a signal of an individual's status. Drawing on self-enhancement theory, we test hypotheses concerning exhibitionistic motivation in photo posting using a novel dataset of group tourism products. An instrumental variable method is used to address the endogeneity issue. We find that the distance between departure and destination, an indicator of cost and time spent, has a positive effect on the inclination to share photos. But people of higher status refrain from the conspicuous display of their photos. Moreover, the distance effect on photo sharing is mitigated by status within a website, suggesting that people assign different marginal values to the conspicuous display of tourism products at the same distance. This study contributes to the understanding of photo-sharing behavior in online reviews and can help platform managers build strategies to enhance reach and engagement.
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