The Role of Self-Construal in Predicting Self-Presentational Motives for Online Social Network Use in the UK and Japan

Abstract

Self-presentational motives underlying online social network (OSN) use were explored in samples of British and Japanese users. Self-expression, maintaining privacy, and attention seeking were strong motives in both samples; impression management and modesty were less strongly endorsed. Measures of independent and interdependent self-construal, as well as narcissism and modesty, were investigated as potential predictors of these motivations. Independent self-construal emerged as the most important predictor across both samples, with less independent participants showing more concern with image management and modesty. Participants with more interdependent self-construals were more concerned about maintaining privacy. There were some differences in the patterns of prediction between the samples, but overall self-construal measures contributed to the explanation of the majority of the motivations, whereas narcissistic or modest personality variables did not.