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Why can’t I stop buying? Upward social comparison on social networking sites and online compulsive buying: a latent moderated mediation model

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Abstract

The pervasiveness of social networking sites (SNSs) has led to renewed interest in the topic of online compulsive buying. These platforms possess unique characteristics that facilitate both social comparison and buying behavior. However, little research has explored the relationship between upward social comparison and online compulsive buying in the context of Chinese SNSs. Moreover, little is known about the underlying mechanism mediating and moderating this association. Drawing the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model (I-PACE) for addictive behaviors, this study developed and examined a moderated mediation model which integrates upward social comparison on SNSs, online compulsive buying, envy, and gratitude to address this gap. The data was collected from 616 college students in China and analyzed using latent moderated structural equation. The results reveal that upward social comparison on SNSs could positively predict online compulsive buying, and envy partially mediates this relationship. Interestingly, gratitude moderates the effects of upward social comparison on envy, that is, envy is a moderated mediator. Specifically, college students with high gratitude experience less envy in upward social comparison compared to those who with low gratitude. These findings are not only valuable for understanding the underlying mechanisms linking social comparison on SNSs and online compulsive buying, but also contribute to the development of psychological intervention programs (e.g., intervention based on gratitude or envy) aiming at reducing people’s online compulsive buying.

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Data Availability

The data used in this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express special gratitude to all the participants for their generous contribution, which made this study possible.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Contributions

Bin Gao contributed to conception and design of the study, performed the statistical analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Quanwei Shen wrote the first draft of the manuscript, reviewed and edited the manuscript, and verified the statistical analysis. Jiamei Lu contributed to conception and supervision of the study. Yiwen Xu and Jingling Wu assisted in collecting the data.

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Correspondence to Quanwei Shen.

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Ethical approval

This study received ethical approval from the Academic Ethics and Ethics Committee of Shanghai Normal University. All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individuals whose responses were reported in the study.

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The author(s) declare no potential competing interests with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Gao, B., Shen, Q., Lu, J. et al. Why can’t I stop buying? Upward social comparison on social networking sites and online compulsive buying: a latent moderated mediation model. Curr Psychol 43, 7059–7070 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04891-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04891-9

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