Protective Self-Presentation for Audiences With Interdependent Self-Construals Using Ephemeral Messages: The Case of Humblebragging

Humblebragging is conceptualized as an understudied form of protective self-presentation where complaints or humility are utilized to avoid incurring social penalties. Although prior research showed the ineffectiveness of humblebragging across multiple contexts, this study identifies conditions when humblebragging prevails over positive self-presentation. In a between-subjects experiment, 377 participants encountered one of four versions of a fictitious person’s self-promotion attempt on Instagram, which differed in terms of self-presentation type (positive self-presentation vs. humblebragging) and message ephemerality (persistent vs. ephemeral). Results indicated that humblebragging was ineffective vis-à-vis task attraction: People who positively self-presented elicited greater task attraction among audiences than people who humblebragged. But among audiences with greater interdependent self-construal, humblebragging was an effective protective self-presentation strategy: People who humblebragged elicited as much social attraction as people who positively self-presented. Mediation analyses also revealed that humblebragging was seen as manipulative, which diminished audiences perceived social attraction and task attraction of the message sender.