The paradoxical effects of impression management on subsequent health choices

Due to the contemporary health-valuing culture, being health-conscious has become a desirable identity. To facilitate creation of this desired identity, people manage their health-identity impression through posting their fitness activities on social media. While impression management is widely studied, few works explicate its implications on selfregulation. Current literature reports inconsistent and conflicting evidence on the relationship between impression management and self-regulation. Furthermore, current studies largely ignore the effects of audience's interpretation of the self-promoter's impression management, the audience's feedback and the impact of the feedback on the self-promoter's subsequent self-regulatory behaviors, specifically subsequent health or fitness choices. Drawing from the impression management literature, this study thus seeks to provide a better understanding of the links between online impression management, feedback from the self-promoter's audience and subsequent health choices. The effects of impression management and the moderation effects of feedback will be tested using field and laboratory experiments.