Double-Tap or Scroll Away? The Social Costs of Humblebragging on Instagram

Abstract

Humblebragging—camouflaging bragging within a complaint—has been shown to be an ineffective, albeit frequently used, self-presentation strategy on text-based platforms such as Twitter (now X). An open question is whether or not the social costs associated with humblebragging also generalize to image-sharing platforms such as Instagram. The current experiment (N=365) aimed to fill this gap and systematically investigated to what extent three different self-presentation strategies—humblebragging, bragging, and complaining—affect both user perceptions and behavioral tendencies. Individuals encountering humblebrags perceived Instagram content creators as unlikable, incompetent, insincere, and associated them with antagonistic (but not agentic) narcissism. Notably, humblebragging did not affect attractiveness perceptions, shedding light on the nuanced dynamics of this phenomenon on Instagram. Furthermore, humblebraggers were less likely to receive “likes” and attract followers compared to creatorsmaking overt bragging or straightforward complaints. These findings highlight the unique challenges posed by humblebragging on Instagram and contribute to a deeper understanding of self-presentation dynamics in visual-based social media. Public Policy Relevance Statement Humblebragging—blending self-promotion with complaints—is often used to appear both impressive and relatable, but this study suggests it may not be well received on Instagram. Participants rated humblebraggers as less likable, less competent, less sincere, and more narcissistic than those who simply bragged or complained. Posts with humblebragging also had a lower engagement in the form of fewer likes and followers. These findings offer new insights into digital self-presentation and the unintended social costs of appearing inauthentic.