The "Perfect Trip" on social media: strategic self-presentation in travel sharing, posting anxiety, and retrospective trip satisfaction with social comparison orientation as a moderator.

BACKGROUND

Rooted in social psychological theories of self-presentation and social comparison, this study asks whether impression management in social media travel sharing is associated with affective costs that may relate to how people evaluate an otherwise positive life episode.

METHODS

Adults who had completed a leisure trip within the past three months and had posted travel-related content at least once completed an anonymous online survey (N = 465). Strategic self-presentation in travel sharing, social media posting anxiety, social comparison orientation, and trip satisfaction were measured with validated scales. Confirmatory factor analysis supported construct distinctiveness. We tested a moderated mediation model using latent moderated structural equations.

RESULTS

Strategic self-presentation was positively associated with posting anxiety, and posting anxiety was negatively associated with trip satisfaction. A small direct association between strategic self-presentation and lower trip satisfaction remained. Social comparison orientation moderated the strategic self-presentation-to-posting-anxiety association, such that the link was weak at low comparison orientation but markedly stronger at high comparison orientation. Conditional indirect effects showed that the negative indirect association between strategic self-presentation and trip satisfaction via posting anxiety increased as social comparison orientation rose.

CONCLUSION

The findings highlight a psychological trade-off in online self-presentation. When travel sharing is guided by impression management, it may be associated with higher posting anxiety and slightly lower trip satisfaction, especially among individuals prone to social comparison.