Self-effects and public commitment on social media: Testing the cognitive and social influences of sending messages on message senders

Abstract

Through a self-effects perspective, this research investigates how people's perceptions of their memories are influenced by sharing those memories on social media. Referencing the bidirectional message effects model and identity shift theory, relevant psychological factors and social media affordances were identified and tested across two studies. Results from Study 1 showed that the self-relevance of an experience and people's engagement during the experience predicted greater perceived memory vividness and/or recalled enjoyment of the experience. Across both studies, mediation models elucidated the importance of “public commitment” in self-effects: Publicly sharing a message engendered greater presumed close audience knowledge, which led to greater commitment, and resulted in greater perceived memory vividness. However, publicly sharing a message did not directly engender greater commitment. Thus, people are not committed due to the public nature of a statement they made, but rather, are committed to a specific subgroup within the public: their close ties.