Co-branding in User-Generated Images on Instragram and Likeability

Images have the ability to influence directly and are considered more credible than words spoken or written (Vilnai-Yavetz and Tifferet, 2015). Exemplified in the idiom: ‘an image is worth a thousand words’, which indicates images are able to convey many meanings that cannot be so clearly communicated in a simple text message. Currently, communication is driven by technology, which has consequently led to the social media rave. Images are being sent, posted and shared to a large extent through these means by people “seeking to construct an image of themselves” (Leary and Kowalski, 1990), increasing likeability and trying to create a desired impression (Vilnai-Yavetz and Tifferet, 2015). A key way of doing so, however, is by enhancing their status through their clothing and objects, which appear with them in their photos (Johnson et al., 2008).

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