Document Type
Honors Thesis
Abstract
As social media platforms are growing and becoming more popular on a global scale, social media influencers (SMIs) are targeted for reaching audiences for product promotion. The current study evaluated whether personality characteristics and stress differ across SMIs and non-SMIs. It was hypothesized that SMIs would have higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism than non-SMIs. It was also hypothesized that SMIs would demonstrate more stress on social media than non-SMIs. In the current study, the participants consisted of 75 SMIs and 75 non-SMIs on Instagram. LIWC software was used to analyze frequencies of terms used by the users to determine the levels of each characteristic. The results showed that SMIs had significantly higher levels of conscientiousness; however significant differences in stress, openness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and extraversion did not emerge. These findings suggest that further research should evaluate differences in levels of conscientiousness in SMIs as they differ from non-SMIs in this aspect. As companies utilize SMIs for product promotion, it is important to consider professional programs or models that cater to traits of conscientiousness.
Publication Date
5-1-2021
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Zuniga, Leslie, "DIFFERENCES IN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND STRESS LEVELS BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS AND NON-SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS ONLINE" (2021). 2021 Spring Honors Capstone Projects. 48.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/honors_spring2021/48