Beyond the “like” button: ideal social self-congruity’s role in shaping consumer behaviors on social media

Purpose This study leverages theories of social influence to explore how “likes” for consumption-related content on social media fulfill consumers’ needs for social acceptance, subsequently affecting their repurchase and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions. It aims to understand the extent to which social media engagements, specifically likes, serve as markers of social validation in the context of consumer behavior. Design/methodology/approach Our mixed-methods approach incorporated two experiments and an analysis of an archival dataset from a popular Chinese social media platform. This comprehensive methodology allowed for empirical validation of our hypotheses, combining experimental control with real-world relevance to scrutinize the impact of likes on consumption behavior. Findings The results of Studies 1 and 2 revealed that the number of likes significantly enhanced behavioral intentions regarding repurchase and positive word-of-mouth by fulfilling consumers’ need for social acceptance. Moreover, this effect was observed only under conditions of high (vs low) ideal social self-congruity. Study 3, conducted in a natural social media context, further validated these findings, demonstrating that likes positively influenced behavioral intention, with ideal social self-congruity acting as a boundary condition. Originality/value This study provides a novel perspective by directly linking social media likes to consumer behavioral intentions, specifically repurchase and WOM, through the mediating role of social acceptance and the moderating effect of ideal social self-congruity. By focusing on user-generated content (UGC) rather than marketer-generated content (MGC), it addresses a critical gap in the literature, emphasizing how receiving likes on consumer-shared content impacts content creators’ post-purchase behaviors, with practical implications for marketers on leveraging aspirational self-congruity to optimize promotional strategies.