Perceptions surpass reality: Self-reported alcohol-related communication on Instagram is more strongly related with frequency of alcohol consumption and binge drinking than actual alcohol-related communication

Abstract

Mounting research finds that sharing alcohol references on social media is related to higher levels of alcohol consumption. The present study aims to improve our understanding of potential biases when using self-report measures, to provide more insight in the differences between background and foreground alcohol references, and to examine different drinking patterns. We examined the Instagram profiles of 128 Belgian college students (Mage = 21.31, SD = 1.50; 64.8 % women) and compared how the observed number of pictures depicting alcohol in the background or in the foreground as well as self-reports on their frequency of sharing alcohol-related content was associated with frequency of alcohol consumption, typical quantity consumed and frequency of binge drinking. Results demonstrated that self-reported frequency of sharing alcohol references and observed number of alcohol-in-the-foreground references were positively related to participants’ alcohol consumption. However, self-reports were a stronger predictor of alcohol consumption than alcohol-in-the-foreground references, and were most strongly related to binge drinking. Alcohol-in-the-background references were not significant. This means that the relationship between sharing alcohol posts and drinking behavior is overinflated in studies relying solely on self-report data.