The science behind why we follow influencers — and how it leads to overconsumption

I follow influencers on Instagram and, for the most part, I have no idea why.

Some people I follow because I like their personalities, like Tefi and Aiden Arata, while others I follow because I like their work, like Rayne Fisher-Quann and Mona Chalabi. I follow some creators because I watched their YouTube videos in high school and want to see what they're up to now, like Arden Rose, Claire Marshall, and Estée Lalonde. And then there are people like Taylor LaShae and Stilla, who I follow because they have bangs and I have bangs, and I like seeing hot people with bangs.

And I do all of this armed with the knowledge that many of them are making me feel like shit. According to documents revealed by The Wall Street Journal's Facebook Files, most people feel worse when they see celebrities and influencers in their Instagram feed because they compare themselves to the influencers they see. This is true. I compare my work to Fisher-Quann and Chalabi; my humor to Tefi and Arata; my wealth to Rose and Marshall and Lalonde; and my ability to look hot with Dora the Explorer's haircut to LaShae and Stilla. Facebook's internal research showed that social comparison and body image issues are high for all Instagram users.

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"Social comparison is worse on Instagram," internal Instagram documents released by the Journal read. "It is perceived as real life, but based on celebrity standards. Explore and profile stalking enables never-ending rabbit holes. Celebrity content is more frequent but friends' content is more impactful in terms of social comparison."

Even if you're not walking into every social media interaction with the dark realities of those platforms looming over you, it's not difficult to notice an internal reaction to following influencers. It can feel bad, and can lead to overconsumption and consumerism. According to one study from Sideqik, 66 percent of social media users say purchase decisions are often driven by influencers and 64 percent say that influencers help them discover new brands, Forbes reported.

So why do we do it?

One study from this year shows that it pretty much boils down to authenticity, consumerism, creative inspiration, and envy. This tracks. I think Tefi is authentic; I want to buy shit that Lalonde is using; Chalabi's work is inspirational; and I envy LaShae.

"The current research identified unique consumer motivations for following [social media influencers] on Instagram and examined its association with important consumer behavior outcomes (i.e. trust towards [social media influencers] brand-related posts and frequency of purchasing [social media influencer]-recommended brands) as well as materialism," the study read. "Based on survey data, findings revealed four motivations for following influencers on Instagram — authenticity, consumerism, creative inspiration, and envy — which had varying effects on trust and purchase frequency."

The study also found that materialism was "strongly associated" with the other four methods, many of which serve as "key mediators underlying materialism’s impact on purchase behavior." Another study from 2020 determined that quality content plays an important role on if users will continue to follow influencers online and if users will trust influencers.

Moreover, we're looking for community, and think we might find that by following influencers — that's basically the plot to Ingrid Goes West. We're lonelier than ever, and we're not joining groups IRL anymore.

"When you don't have these religious structures, which are guiding you and defining who you ought to be, what ends up happening is people still seek meaning," Stephanie Alice Baker, a senior lecturer in sociology at the City University of London, told Mashable in a previous article. "You still need somebody to give them this sense of purpose. And so this is where you often find a lot of celebrities or influencers filling this void."

This area of research is particularly interesting for advertisers and marketers because influences hold "clear value" for marketers, the 2022 study states. We follow influencers because we want to be like them — we buy from them because we trust them.

Colin Campbell, an associate professor of marketing at the Knauss School of Business at University of San Diego, told Mashable that once we create these parasocial relationships with influencers, the bond is so strong that it becomes one of the most valuable ways to sell us things. Users often forget that we're even being sold something, because we think of influencers like we think of friends or family members, Campbell said.

"People most trust other consumers and they trust friends and family members way more than they would advertisers," Campbell said. "What's interesting with influencers is they're kind of a mix of those two things. So people tend to forget the fact that they're getting paid or not mind it because influencers are also really good at going through and telling you that they're doing it for you, that they are only recommending products that they think are wonderful."

According to the Advertising Research Foundation, "people have different motivations for engaging with and purchasing from influencers, primarily entertainment, inspiration and deal seeking." This lines up pretty well with the very reasons we follow influencers in the first place.

Knowing the void we're attempting to fill by following influencers — and how marketers are taking advantage of that void — is important information to have, but it won't make us feel less alone or drive us to be less materialistic. For that, we're all going to have to touch some grass.