About Things that Can Never Be Fully Yours: A Preliminary Experiment on Flexing

Abstract

The practice of showing off (“flexing”) gradually becomes a daily rite across social media platforms. The current state in Indonesia has even escalated to nationwide issues. We tested the impact of materialistic display on Instagram from the perspective of the audiences using within-subject experimental design. Participants (n= 30 undergraduates; 50% females; M age= 20.967, SD= 1.067) were presented with (i) 3 photos of conspicuous consumption, (ii) 3 photos of conspicuous leisure, and (iii) 3 neutral photos. They then rated the extent to which each photo evoked materialistic aspirations in the domains of wealth, popularity, image, power, and social adherence. A 2 (participant’s sex) by 3 (type of situational materialism stimulus) mixed analysis ANOVA revealed that participants’ materialistic aspirations after receiving flexing photos were higher than after exposure to neutral photos (F(2,27)= 17.431, p<.001). These impacts were consistent for female participants with regards to both consumptive and leisure photos (ps<.01), however male participants did not rate leisure vs. neutral photos differently (p>.072). Although our finding should be considered as preliminary, it highlights that brief exposure to materialistic photos on Instagram can be more contagious among females.

Keywords: conspicuous consumption; conspicuous leisure; flexing; materialistic aspiration, Instagram.