How does social network diversity affect users’ lurking intention toward social network services? A role perspective

With the increase of users' social connections on social network services, their social circles become more diverse, which make it difficult to maintain their ideal images and thus lead to their lurking behaviors. Based on the self-discrepancy theory, an integrated model was proposed to link role-related constructs to lurking intention. Results based on data from 641 WeChat users show that social interaction anxiety and disappointment positively influence lurking intention. Role conflict and role overload positively influence social interaction anxiety and disappointment. Moreover, role overload positively moderates the relationship between role conflict and disappointment. Lastly, study implications and conclusions are discussed.