How do consumers choose to click ‘like’ on luxury ads in social media? Role of envy, number of likes, and culture

Abstract

We conducted two experimental studies to examine how malicious and benign envy and the number of likes as a social proof determine the intention to click “like” on luxury advertisements on social media. As expected, benign enviers reacted positively to an ad with high like totals. In contrast, malicious enviers reacted positively to an ad with low like totals. Testing the effects of culture on this relationship revealed individualistic versus collectivist cultural differences. US consumers tend to have higher intentions to click “like” when malicious envy is paired with low numbers of likes. Comparatively, Korean consumers show higher click intentions when benign envy is paired with high numbers of likes. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.