Self-Esteem Contingencies Predict Approval-Seeking and Responses to Likes on Instagram

Undergraduate Instagram-users reported their self-esteem contingencies, social media behaviors, and thoughts and feelings about “likes” (an explicit measure of social approval on social media). Competition-contingent self-esteem was associated with valuing, seeking, and comparing “likes,” and both competition-contingent and approval-contingent self-esteem predicted specific envy and general affective responses to likes.