Revealing the True Self Online: How Lurking Behavior Interacts With Exposure to Positivity Bias and Affects Self-Disclosure on Social Media

Abstract

Many have claimed that social media ultimately functions as a “highlight reel,” portraying the most picturesque moments of users’ lives. However, less work has focused on how individuals’ use of social media affects user outcomes. This study seeks to understand how lurking and exposure to positivity bias are associated with online self-disclosure. Drawing on panel survey data from Spain (N = 570), the results reveal a negative relationship between lurking behavior and self-disclosure. In contrast, when social media users are exposed to positively biased social media content, they are more likely to self-disclose information about themselves. Finally, the interaction effect indicates that users who lurk less often—and are therefore more active social media users—are more likely to self-disclose. This association is starker when users are highly exposed to posts in which other users exhibit their achievements (positivity bias). This study contributes to the existing research on the antecedents of self-disclosure and the literature on positivity bias, further elucidating the role of the social media “highlight reel.”