Date
8-29-2025
Department
School of Communication and the Arts
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Strategic Media (PhD)
Chair
Wes Hartley
Keywords
Instagram, influencers, Hinge, online dating, impression management, self-presentation, social media, social influence, social norm, dating applications
Disciplines
Communication
Recommended Citation
Callahan, Erin L., "The Influencer Effect: Impression Management in the Age of Social Media and Online Dating" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7409.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7409
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the relationship between individuals who follow social media influencers online and their impression management behaviors on online dating profiles. The central problem was defined as individuals adopting beliefs, goals, products, and news from the social media influencers they follow on Instagram. The theories guiding this study are Kelman’s Social Influence Theory and Goffman’s Presentation of Self Theory. This exploratory qualitative study employed comparative content analysis as its research method. Two sets of content were compared and analyzed: content from social media influencers (subjects) and the Hinge dating profiles of participants who qualified for the study. The key findings can be summarized in three main points. First, social media influencers establish a social norm for how users maintain their image and present themselves within the digital sphere. Second, participants manage their impressions similarly, both in the photos they select for their dating profiles and in the text-based language used on those profiles. Third, individuals may be influenced by social media influencers to engage in impression management on their dating applications; however, further research is needed to confirm this. This study on social influence and impression management on dating profiles is significant because there has been a notable shift in how people present themselves to others, driven by the growth of social media. While impression management is not a new concept, the unique confluence of impression management, online dating, and social influence has not been extensively studied, offering this research fresh opportunities for scholarly discovery.
