Instagram sober journeys: How relapse narratives and viewing orders influence audience response on social media

Abstract

The prevalence of recovery journey self-disclosures on social media among individuals with substance use and mental disorders has increased in recent years. However, the effects of exposure to such self-disclosures on public attitudes towards these groups remain poorly understood. To address this research gap, this study investigated the impact of viewing a series of Instagram posts depicting a person's sober journey that ends positively on the attitudes and policy support of 1437 self-selected U.S. adults. The experiment employed a 2 (relapse narrative: present vs. absent) × 2 (viewing order: chronological vs. reverse-chronological) × 4 (media persona with different genders and races) between-subjects factorial design. While the experimental manipulations did not have a total effect on attitudes and policy support, the study found that the presence of a relapse narrative within a sober journey story increased perceived perseverance, parasocial interaction, and identification, which in turn affected attitudes and policy support in different ways. Furthermore, the viewing order of the posts moderated the effects of a relapse narrative on these variables. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical contributions and practical implications.