Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288

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Computers in Human Behavior

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Followers’ problematic engagement with influencers on social media: An

attachment theory perspective
Samira Farivar a, *, Fang Wang b, **, Ofir Turel c
a
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
b
Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
c
School of Computing and Information System, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Following social media influencers is a common activity for social media users. As influencers endeavour to
Social media influencing engage followers and increase their power of influence for commercial value, it can result in potential negative
Attachment consequences to followers’ wellbeing. This research explored how social media influencing may cause prob­
Problematic engagement
lematic engagement with influencers. To do so, we drew from attachment theory and used mixed methods,
Parasocial relationship
Sense of belonging
including a Delphi study and a survey with 500 Instagram users. Results suggested that influencer characteristics
such as physical attractiveness, social attractiveness, and self-presence, as well as followers’ participation
comprehensiveness can foster followers’ problematic engagement through the mediation of bond- and identity-
based attachment (i.e., parasocial relationship and sense of belonging). Importantly, following more influencers
weakened the effect of sense of belonging on problematic engagement, but not that of parasocial relationship.
Overall, this study sheds light on negative aspects of social media influencing and provides useful insights to
gauge social media influencers’ engagement tactics for a healthy follower behaviour and influencer outcomes.

1. Introduction
With billions of users around the world, social media has brought
enormous business and social value, but also raises concerns on user
addiction and maladaptive use (Osatuyi & Turel, 2018). Individuals
with social media addiction or problematic behavior exhibit a compul­
sion to use social media to excess (Starcevic, 2013). Social media mal­
adaptive use and addiction are associated with mental health problems
such as stress, anxiety, and depression, and with reduced wellbeing
(Marino, Finos, Vieno, Lenzi, & Spada, 2017; Toker & Baturay, 2016).
Prior research on the problematic use of social media has largely
attributed it to users’ personal features (e.g., low self control) and social
media design and contents (e.g., a smart feed algorithm) (Neophytou,
Manwell, & Eikelboom, 2019). Specifically, individuals with certain
characteristics are susceptible to addiction. For example, a
meta-analysis on Facebook use (Marino, Gini, Vieno, & Spada, 2018)
indicates that individual characteristics such as gender, personality
traits, self-esteem levels, and motivations for using Facebook are asso­
ciated with problematic use. de Bérail et al. (2019) suggest social anxiety
as the precedence of YouTube addiction. In addition, social media design
and contents can induce addiction. For example, content gratification
and content engagement are found to contribute to YouTube addiction
(Balakrishnan & Griffiths, 2017). Similarly, design features that allow
variability in rewards, such as “likes”, can drive people to use social
media excessively (Turel & Bechara, 2021).
While the literature has directed addiction as a natural tendency of
individuals that associates with personal traits, few studies have
explored exogenous conditions beyond social media design and contents
that may contribute to excessive social media use. In addition, most
studies examined users’ problematic behaviour in the general use of
social media and rarely looked into specific engagement and activity.
Particularly, little is known on followers’ addictive and problematic
engagement with social media influencers. It is important to examine
this context (i.e., influencers and followers on social media) given the
magnitude in terms of volume and revenues (2.3 Billion USD in 2020) of
its activities (Farivar & Wang, 2021).
Social media influencers are users of social media who are being
followed by a significant number of other users (De Veirman, Cau­
berghe, & Hudders, 2017; Harrigan et al., 2021). Followers receive
automatic post feeds from the influencers, can participate in discussions

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: samira.farivar@carleton.ca (S. Farivar), fwang@wlu.ca (F. Wang), oturel@unimelb.edu.au (O. Turel).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107288
Received 11 November 2021; Received in revised form 17 February 2022; Accepted 27 March 2022
Available online 30 March 2022
0747-5632/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Farivar et al.
and activities of the influencers, and form virtual communities around
the influencers. As social media influencers endeavor to attract, retain,
and engage followers, followers are increasingly attached to the influ­
encers and the influencer communities (Ki, Cuevas, Chong, & Lim,
2020). This attachment helps influencers to achieve marketing and
business success of branding and selling (Gräve, 2019), but in the
meantime, may result, as we argue in this paper, in followers’ excessive
use and problematic engagement with the influencers.
Extant research on social media influencers has mainly focused on
positive aspect of influencers and explored factors that can enhance
influencer effectiveness. Social media users are prone to develop prob­
lematic behaviors such as excessive and addictive social media use
(Turel & Qahri-saremi, 2016) and this can be fostered by various social
pressures (Osatuyi & Turel, 2019), including presumably by social
media influencers. In order to enhance their commercial success, social
media influencers try to increase their followers’ engagement by posting
frequently and encouraging their followers to participate on their social
media pages. This can motivate ongoing compulsive reward seeking by
users, diminished reward sensation (tolerance), and reduced ability to
control the behavior (Turel & Bechara, 2021), which can underlie
problematic behaviors such as addictive engagement among followers.
The literature on social media addiction mostly focused on general use
of social media (Naranjo-Zolotov, Turel, Oliveira, & Lascano, 2021), and
the role of specific activities such as following influencers in causing
problematic behaviors has been largely ignored. This research is among
the first to address the dark side of social media influencers by studying
the effects of key factors in influencer relationship or attachment
building on follower problematic engagement.
The paper is structured as follows: the next section discusses the
background on key concepts of this research, next, study 1 and its results
are presented. This is followed by hypotheses and research model of
study 2. Then, the methodology and empirical results of study 2 are
discussed. Finally, the research contributions, limitations, and conclu­
sion are presented.
2. Background
2.1. Social media influencing and users’ problematic engagement
Social media influencing through influencers is a notable phenom­
enon in recent years. Influencers have a sizable network of followers,
who show keen interests in the influencers’ information and activities by
voluntarily receiving automatic post feeds from the influencers and
interacting with the influencers and other followers by comments and
discussions. An increasing body of literature has studied factors that can
enhance influencers’ effectiveness (Casaló, Flavián, & Ibáñez-Sánchez,
2020; Farivar, Wang, & Yuan, 2021; Hwang & Zhang, 2018;
Jiménez-Castillo & Sánchez-Fernández, 2019). We note that research on
the topic has been multidisciplinary and relied on various research
traditions. Thus, the quality of evidence might vary. While assessing this
quality and possibly questioning past findings is beyond the scope of this
paper, we acknowledge this need. As such, we attempt to rely on mul­
tiple pieces of evidence, when possible, rather than on a single study,
such that we increase the likelihood of our claims to be based on past
credible insights. Particularly, the research on influencers has provided
some evidence that followers’ relationship to influencer, such as para­
social relationship (i.e., the unilateral interpersonal relationship a fol­
lower develops with an influencer), is the key to the effectiveness of
social media influencer (Hu, Min, Han, & Liu, 2020; Hwang & Zhang,
2018; Lee & Watkins, 2016), and influencer characteristics, such as so­
cial and physical attractiveness, can affect the formation of parasocial
relationship (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Sokolova & Kefi, 2020). This strand
of research tended to use large scale surveys; hence, it provides
2
Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288
relatively strong strength of evidence.1
As the research on social media influencer has largely viewed
influencers’ efforts to engage followers in a positive way and focused on
understanding factors that enhance influencer effectiveness, few note
the potential negative effect of followers’ attachment to influencers.
Social media users are susceptible to develop problematic behaviors,
which can be further fostered by influencers’ endeavour to engage fol­
lowers and achieve commercial success. Followers’ addiction to
engaging with an influencer account is a specific type of social media
addiction that relates to the activity of influencer following. We defined
it as a state of engagement that manifests in a constant need to check the
influencer account, negative emotions when one cannot check the ac­
count, and a use pattern that generates problems in various life domains.
The literature on social media addiction has largely attended to general
usage of social media, but rarely studied addiction pertaining to specific
activities. An exception is de Bérail et al. (2019) who studied the links
between followers’ social anxiety, parasocial relationship, and addiction
on YouTube.
In a broader perspective, social media addiction is a type of and is
studied under the general category of online or Internet addiction (Turel
& Qahri-saremi, 2016). Extant research on Internet and social media
addiction had largely attributed addictive behaviour to personal factors
or individual differences (Fumero, Marrero, Voltes, & Peñate, 2018;
Hawk, van den Eijnden, van Lissa, & terBogt, 2019; Turel, Brevers, &
Bechara, 2018). For example, a meta-analysis on 28 studies on Internet
addiction classified five risk factors, including psychopathology, per­
sonality features, social difficulties, self-esteem, social skills, and family
functioning (Fumero et al., 2018). Another meta-analytic review on 12
studies associated big five personality traits with Internet addiction,
suggesting the positive association of neuroticism and the negative as­
sociations of openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extra­
version, and agreeableness to Internet addiction (Kayiş et al., 2016).
Similarly, research on social media addiction studied users’ personal
factors (Hawk et al., 2019; Turel et al., 2018). A recent meta-analysis on
the gender difference in social media and online gaming addiction
suggested that men are more addicted to gaming while women are more
to social media (Su, Han, Yu, Wu, & Potenza, 2020).
A review of the literature suggested that little research has attended
to users’ problematic behaviour related to specific social media activ­
ities, and especially to engaging with influencers. In addition, research
has focused on understanding personal factors, but relates little to
exogenous factors. Different from previous studies, in this research, we
explored the followers’ problematic engagement with Instagram influ­
encer and examined the effects of exogenous factors in social media
influencing that contribute to influencers’ success but may also affect
followers’ problem engagement through fostering follower attachment.
2.2. The social psychology theory of attachment
Social psychology theory distinguishes two types of member
attachment and relationship in group-community settings, i.e., bond-
based attachment and identity-based attachment (Prentice, Miller, &
Lightdale, 1994). Bond-based attachment refers to the relationship
people develop with other individual members in a group (Festinger,
Schachter, & Back, 1950). Identity-based attachment reflects the
connection or social identity a member shares with a group as a whole
(Hogg & Turner, 1985; Tajfel & Turner, 1986). While distinct,
identity-based and bond-based attachment often cooccur in individuals
attached to a particular community; members of a community can
simultaneously feel a connection to the community as a whole and to
individuals within it (Ren et al., 2012). A group or community often tries
to foster both types of attachment for the maximum member attachment
results.
1
https://ktdrr.org/ktstrategies/evidence.html.
S. Farivar et al. Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288

Member attachment of the two types is used to explain and under­
stand various business and social phenomena. For instance, social
research has studied bond- and identity-based attachment in romantic
partnership and adult relationships (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007; Wei,
Mallinckrodt, Larson, & Zakalik, 2005). Business research has applied
the two types of attachment to explain difference in member behaviour
in online communities, such as participation, retention, and willingness
to help (Ren et al., 2012), and to study the design decision of online
communities (Ren, Kraut, & Kiesler, 2007). Brand research considers
customer attachment as a key factor in brand loyalty (Boateng, Kosiba,
Adam, Ofori, & Okoe, 2020). Different user attachment can also explain
varied and reinforced social media use (Pan, Lu, Wang, & Chau, 2017).
The research on problematic behaviors has established a link be­
tween attachment and problematic behaviors such as addiction
(D’Arienzo, Boursier, & Griffiths, 2019). For instance, people with
insecure attachment appear to use the social media as a way of replacing
and compensating missing affections from family and peers (D’Arienzo
et al., 2019). In the social media context, de Bérail et al. (2019) linked
parasocial relationship perceived by followers, a bond-based attach­
ment, with excessive use and addiction on YouTube. No research has
applied and compared the two types of attachment, i.e., bond- and
identity-based attachment, in explaining problematic engagement with
influencers. This is an important gap to bridge, because doing so would
allow understating and dealing with unexplored dark sides of influencer
marketing, and increase our theoretical understating of technology
related addiction, using the perspective of social psychology theory of
attachment.
3. Study 1: A Delphi study
The literature on social media and social media influencers has
suggested many factors that are important in the interaction and
connection between influencers and followers, through the broad lens of
theory of attachment. These factors can be categorized as influencer
characteristics, account characteristics, and followers’ participation
factors. In order to select and study a set of factors for our study on
follower attachment, we conducted a modified Delphi study to collect
experts’ opinions on the important factors in followers’ attachment
development.
Delphi method is a widely used qualitative research approach that is
particularly suited when a clear perspective on a specific problem is not
available through the literature (Gallego & Bueno, 2014; Skinner,
Nelson, Chin, & Land, 2015). It provides “a structured, multiple-step
process for collecting and condensing the knowledge from a group of
experts to deal with a complex problem by means of a series of ques­
tionnaires interspersed with controlled feedback” (Quyên, 2014, p.
829). Particularly, we followed a modified Delphi approach (Slade,
Dionne, Underwood, & Buchbinder, 2014), which includes 1) a review
of literature to develop a list of variables that may affect follower
attachment with social media influencers; 2) formation of an expert
panel; and 3) conducting two rounds of anonymous survey with the
expert panel to seek consensus on the most important variables in
fostering follower attachment with social media influencers.
3.1. Key factors for follower attachment development
Following the modified Delphi approach, we first developed a list of
factors that are considered important in social media interaction and
may affect follower attachment formation, through a thorough and
systematic literature review on social media influencer research. Table 1
shows these factors.
3.2. Data collection and results
The questionnaire with all identified variables and definitions
(Table 1) was sent to a panel of 12 experts for their rating and opinion on
the importance of these factors in affecting followers’ attachment to
influencers. These 12 experts were all researchers in North American
universities who actively work and publish on the social media influ­
encers topic. The experts were invited to rate the importance of the
variables (from 1: not important to 7: very important) in affecting fol­
lower attachment to influencers. All 12 experts responded to the survey.
To assess experts’ consensus on the importance of a variable, the
following criteria were used: 1) the mean of expert ratings be greater

Table 1
Selected key variables in social media influencing.
Variables Descriptions References

Influencer attributes
Physical attractiveness
Trustworthiness
Social attractiveness
Expertise
Self-presence
Prestige
Homophily (similarity)
Account attributes
Content uniqueness
Content originality
Content informativeness
Content quality
Language similarity
Hedonic value of content
Follower participation attributes
Participation
comprehensiveness
Following length
Followers’ perception regarding the attractiveness of an influencer’s appearance. (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Sakib, Zolfagharian, & Yazdanparast,
2020)
Followers’ perception of honesty, integrity, and believability of an influencer. (Breves, Liebers, Abt, & Kunze, 2019; Schouten, Janssen, &
Verspaget, 2020)
Followers’ perception regarding the attractiveness of an influencer’s behavior (i.e., (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Sokolova & Kefi, 2020)
likeability).
Followers’ perception regarding the experience and knowledge of an influencer. (Breves et al., 2019; Ki & Kim, 2019)
Followers’ perceptual experience of the presence of an influencer in their (Jin, Ryu, & Muqaddam, 2021; Kim, 2021; Ledbetter &
communication and interaction. Meisner, 2021)
The extent to which followers perceive an influencer as conveying high status Ki and Kim (2019)
contents.
The extent to which followers perceive an influencer to be similar to themselves (in (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Schouten et al., 2020)
beliefs, social status, etc.).
The extent to which followers perceive an influencer’s posts as unique and different Casaló et al. (2020)
from others.
The extent to which followers perceive an influencer’s posts as original and authentic. Casaló et al. (2020)
The extent to which followers perceive an influencer’s posts as informative. (Ki et al., 2020; Ki & Kim, 2019)
Followers’ perception regarding the quality of an influencer’s posts. Casaló et al. (2020)
The extent to which followers perceive an influencer’s language/communication Kim and Kim (2020)
(style, phrases, and words) to be similar to themselves.
The enjoyment, emotions, and entertainment followers experience from reading an Hughes, Swaminathan, and Brooks (2019)
influencer’s posts.
The comprehensiveness of followers’ interaction with an influencer’s account for (Barnes & Böhringer, 2011; Limayem, Hirt, & Cheung, 2007;
multiple purposes and through various activities. Mirkovski, Jia, Liu, & Chen, 2018)
The length of following an influencer. (Alalwan, Rana, Dwivedi, & Algharabat, 2017; Farivar et al.,
2021; Lee, Kavya, & Lasser, 2021)

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S. Farivar et al. Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288

than 5 (on a 7-point Likert scale); 2) 75% or more respondents agree on

the importance of the variable by rating it as 5 or higher; and 3) standard
deviations of responses be below 1.5 (Christie & Barela, 2005). Results
of the first round are shown in Table 2. Five variables met all criteria.
These include three influencer attributes, i.e., physical attractiveness,
social attractiveness, and self-presence, and two follower participation
attributes, i.e., participation comprehensiveness and following length.
In the second round of the Delphi study, we sent the ranking of the
variables as well as data of their means, medians, and standard de­
viations to the expert panel and asked if they would agree with the
ranking or want to again rate the importance of the variables and pro­
vide comments. Following requirements of the Delphi method, we pre-
specified the consensus criteria for this round as receiving at least
80% consensus from the experts to close the Delphi study. In the second
Fig. 1. Research model.
round, 91.6% of the experts agreed with the factor ranking of round 1
without further rating and comment; new ratings received did not
change the ranking of round 1. influencer, we examined the moderation effect of the number of influ­
Overall, the Delphi study pointed to five variables that can influence encers followed on the relationships of parasocial relationship and sense
attachment in our context: influencer physical attractiveness, influencer of belonging with problematic engagement.
social attractiveness, influencer self-presence, followers’ participation
comprehensiveness and following length. These were included in our 4.1. Follower attachment and problematic engagement
research model in study 2 to examine their effects on follower attach­
ment and then followers’ problematic engagement with influencer The literature on addiction and maladaptive behavior has empha­
account. sized the role of affective reactions over cognition in causing problem­
atic behavior (Turel & Bechara, 2021). Attachment is studied as a
4. The research model and hypotheses critical element in leading to technological addictions (Melumad &
Pham, 2020). In social media influencer literature, studies suggested
Based on the Delphi study results and drawing from the social psy­ that followers usually develop attachment to the influencer (Farivar
chology theory of attachment, we examined the effects of social media et al., 2021). Drawing on social psychology theory, we considered bond-
influencing factors on followers’ problematic engagement via the and identity-based attachment, i.e., parasocial relationship and sense of
mediation of bond-based and identity-based attachment reflected by belonging, as affective reactions among followers.
parasocial relationship and sense of belonging. Fig. 1 shows the research The influencer marketing literature considers parasocial relation­
model that depicts influencer attributes (i.e., physical attractiveness, ship, i.e., the unilateral relationships followers perceive with influ­
social attractiveness, and self-presence) and follower participation at­ encers, as a critical factor influencing followers’ attitude and intention
tributes (i.e., participation comprehensiveness and length of following) (Ballantine & Martin, 2005). Parasocial relationship is a bond-based
as precedents of the two types of follower attachment, which lead to attachment, in which followers consider that they are in a relationship
followers’ problematic engagement. Since followers’ engagement with a with an influencer. Using large scale survey data, previous social media
particular influencer is within a broad context of social media following, studies have provided some evidence that parasocial relationship in­
in which users usually follow multiple influencers, and following mul­ creases excessive and problematic use of social media (Baek, Bae, &
tiple influencers distracts followers from engaging with a particular Jang, 2013, 2014; de Bérail et al., 2019). Applied here, in the context of
social media influencers, we contended that when followers develop
intense parasocial relationship with an influencer, they become more
Table 2
obsessed and would develop problematic engagement with the influ­
Results of round 1 of the Delphi study.
encer. This is because the interactions with the influencer can become
Variables Mean Median Standard Agreement for
highly rewarding (Turel & Bechara, 2021), to the extent that people
Deviation Importance (rated
higher than 5) cannot give them up, akin to a baby who throws a tantrum when
deprived of a pacifier (Melumad & Pham, 2017). Therefore, we
Influencer attributes
Physical 6.5 7 0.65 91.67%
hypothesized:
attractiveness
H1. Parasocial relationship between followers and an influencer
Trustworthiness 4.8 5 1.28 33.33%
Social attractiveness 6.7 7 0.62 91.67%
would increase followers’ problematic engagement with the influencer.
Expertise 4.8 4 1.19 25%
Sense of belonging refers to the feeling of being an integral part of a
Self-presence 6.8 7 0.62 91.67%
Prestige 4.6 4 0.98 16.67% community (L. Zhao, Lu, Wang, Chau, & Zhang, 2012), thus it reflects an
Homophily 4.1 4 1.16 16.67% identity-based attachment. Belonging is one of the core biological needs
(similarity) of humans (Kunc, 1992), and individuals require “regular social contact
Content attributes with those to whom they feel connected” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995, p.
Content uniqueness 4.2 4 1.03 8.33%
Content originality 4.1 4 1.38 16.67%
501). This means that followers who develop a high sense of belonging
Content 4.3 4 1.30 16.67% to the influencer community are more likely to check and interact with
informativeness the influencer account. This happens because checking and interacting
Content quality 4.6 4 1.49 25% with the influencer account satisfies their fundamental needs of
Language similarity 4.8 4 1.27 25%
communicating and connecting with others. However, a high level of
Hedonic value of 5.0 5 1.24 33.33%
content checking influencers’ accounts raises the chances of developing prob­
Follower participation attributes lematic engagement with the influencer. That is, the alluring nature of
Participation 6.4 7 0.99 83.33% the influencer account can drive a sense of belonging in followers, and
comprehensiveness this is a highly potent reward that can drive technology addiction
Following length 5.9 6 1.08 75%
(Naranjo-Zolotov et al., 2021). Thus, we proposed:

4
S. Farivar et al.
H2. Followers’ sense of belonging to the influencer account would
increase their problematic engagement with the influencer.
4.2. Moderation effect of number of influencers
The contextual variable that we considered as the moderator is the
number of influencers that are being followed by a follower. Most
Instagram users follow multiple influencers. These influencers compete
for users’ attention in a zero-sum game. Consequently, following mul­
tiple influencers can deviate users’ engagement from a particular
influencer. We argue that the number of followed influencers can
therefore weaken the effects of parasocial relationship and sense of
belonging on problematic engagement. This is because as the number of
influencers followed increases, followers divide their attention and are
less likely to stick with one influencer for excessive engagement.
H3–H4. Number of followed influencers negatively moderates: (H3)
the parasocial— problematic engagement relationship and (H4) the
sense of belonging—problematic engagement relationship.
4.3. Influencer characteristics and follower attachment
The Delphi study suggested influencer characteristics such as phys­
ical attractiveness, social attractiveness, and self-presence as important
social media influencing factors affecting follower attachment. Social
media research has stressed on the importance of influencer attractive­
ness. Physical attractiveness refers to attractiveness of influencers’
appearance and social attractiveness refers to the likeability of their
behaviour (Lee & Watkins, 2016; Sakib et al., 2020). It is long observed
that media figures of physical and social attractiveness receive greater
attention and interactions from audience, leading to audience attach­
ment (Bond, 2018). Using large scale online surveys, influencer mar­
keting research has focused on bond-based attachment of parasocial
relationship and suggested the positive effects of influencers’ physical
and social attractiveness on parasocial relationship (Lee & Watkins,
2016; Sokolova & Kefi, 2020). The identity-based attachment of
belonging has been ignored. Nevertheless, as influencers are the key
figure in the influencer community and play a dominant role in deter­
mining the community coherence, their features can significantly affect
the community culture and followers’ sense of belonging. People would
simply prefer affiliating and socially interacting with attractive others
(Steger & Kashdan, 2009) because this contributes and enhances their
self identity (Kleine, Kleine, & Kernan, 1993). We hence hypothesized:
H5 & H6. Perceived physical attractiveness of influencer would in­
crease: (H5) parasocial relationship perceived by followers; and (H6)
followers’ sense of belonging to the influencer account.
H7 & H8. Perceived social attractiveness of influencer would increase:
(H7) parasocial relationship perceived by followers; and (H8) followers’
sense of belonging to the influencer account.
Influencers’ self-presence refers to the extent to which they present
self in posts and the interactions with followers. Based on the extent of
presenting self, influencers can be categorized as informers and
meformers. Meformers are those who post more about themselves and
frequently involve their own presence in videos and photos, whereas
informers often focus on the content of a subject without involving much
self figure and stories (Hu & Hong, 2017). Literature on online platforms
and virtual communities has shown that feeling the presence of other
individuals is an important factor in improving user experience and
satisfaction (Jin, Sun, Wang, & Zhang, 2017; Ogara, Koh, & Prybutok,
2014). In online environments, the feeling of being with another en­
hances the sense of intimacy and closeness and can meet the psycho­
logical need of belonging (Gao, Liu, & Li, 2017). Social media influencer
literature has also studied the importance of influencer presence in
developing relationship with their followers (Djafarova & Rushworth,
2017). Following these findings, in this study, we suggested that when
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Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288
influencers have higher presence in their social media posts, followers
are more likely to be engaged and attached. This presence is key for
fostering relationship with followers (Yuan & Lou, 2020). We
hypothesized:
H9 & H10. Influencer’s self-presence would increase: (H9) parasocial
relationship perceived by followers; and (H10) followers’ sense of
belonging to the influencer account.
4.4. Follower participation attributes and attachment
The Delphi study suggested that features of followers’ participation
such as participation comprehensiveness and following length are
important factors that may contribute to follower attachment. Partici­
pation comprehensiveness is a concept extended from comprehensive­
ness of usage, which refers to “the extent to which an individual makes
use of the various applications offered under the umbrella of a single IS
system” (Limayem et al., 2007, p. 715). Prior research on information
systems and social media suggested that comprehensiveness of usage
affects the formation of user habits and continuous usage (Barnes &
Böhringer, 2011; Limayem et al., 2007; Mirkovski et al., 2018). In the
context of social media influencers, followers can follow an influencer
with various purposes such as information seeking, enjoyment, getting
to know the influencer, maintaining self identity, and social communi­
cation, and to satisfy these varied purposes, they can choose among
different activities, such as browsing influencer account and comment­
ing on the posts. Not all followers interact with influencer’s account to
the same extent. Some followers have a narrow focus of purposes and
may limit themselves to only browsing the influencer account, while
others may engage more comprehensively through different activities
such as commenting, liking posts, or interacting with other followers to
satisfy multiple needs (Verduyn, Ybarra, Résibois, Jonides, & Kross,
2017). When followers have a comprehensive participation and more
extensive involvement with influencers, it is more likely that they derive
enjoyment from their interaction (Quiroz & Mickelson, 2021), would
feel that it enhances their wellbeing (Verduyn et al., 2015), and conse­
quently will be likely to develop stronger attachment. We hence
hypothesized:
H11 & H12. Followers’ participation comprehensiveness would in­
crease: (H11) parasocial relationship perceived by followers; and (H12)
followers’ sense of belonging to the influencer account.
Following length refers to how long a social media user has been a
follower of a particular influencer. Followers typically automatically
receive the influencer’s posts and are hence engage with the influencer
at least to some extent. Social research on community and attachment
specifies a positive association between length of a relationship or usage
and attachment development (Kasarda & Janowitz, 1974; Mcmillan &
Chavis, 1986; Papacharissi & Mendelson, 2011). This happens because
time allows relationship and attachment formation, as it affords learning
more about the partner and forming bonds (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). In
the context of social media influencers, followers with longer relation­
ships are more likely to establish greater affinity with the influencer and
hence, develop greater attachment. Therefore, we tested:
H13 & H14. Followers’ length of following would enhance: (H13)
parasocial relationship perceived by followers; and (H14) sense of
belonging to the influencer account.
5. Study 2: An online survey
5.1. Data collection and sample
An online survey was developed to collect quantitative data from
Instagram users who are following influencers. We engaged with a
reputable firm to collect data for us from a panel of participants they
manage in North America. All participants were paid by this company
S. Farivar et al. Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288

and were screened by them to ensure they are over 18, use Instagram,
are reasonably fluent in English, and follow influencers.
First, a pilot study was conducted with 60 Instagram users who were
following social media influencers. All measurement scales (except one
item of sense of belonging, one item of parasocial relationship, and one
item of social attractiveness; see Table 4) showed strong reliability and
validity. Those items that didn’t show strong reliability and validity
were removed for the full data collection. After ensuring the reliability
and validity of scales and clarity of questions, we used the survey to
gather the final sample. Respondents were asked to consider an influ­
encer based in North America that they are following and answer the
survey questions accordingly. Several screening questions (e.g., how
many followers this influencer has, is this influencer based in North
America, etc.) were included to ensure that the responses addressing
proper influencers were collected. A total of 500 complete and valid
responses were obtained. Table 3 shows the demographics of our
sample.
5.2. Measurement
Table 4 shows the measurement items. Measurements were mostly
adapted from well-established instruments in the literature. Self-
presence was measured with three developed items, which were vali­
dated in the pilot study. To ensure clarity and content validity, we
received confirmation of three Information Systems and Marketing
faculty members (other than the authors). Seven-point Likert scale was
used to measure all the constructs. Additionally, number of followed
influencers and following length were reported by respondents. The
descriptive and reliability statistics of key constructs of the survey are
shown in Table 5. Next, Herman’s one-factor test was conducted. Result
indicated that the largest extracted factor explained 33 percent of the
total variance; hence, the measurement model can be considered free
from the common method bias.
6. Empirical results
A two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS 27.0
was followed to test the research model and hypotheses. First, a
confirmatory factor analysis model was tested. The results revealed an
acceptable fit [χ2/DF = 2.463, CFI = 0.96, RMSE = 0.054, p-close =
0.172, and SRMR = 0.088]; moreover, all loadings were above 0.60 and
significant. Then, the structural model was estimated. It achieved an
acceptable fit [χ2/DF = 1.371, CFI = 0.996, RMSE = 0.963, p-close =
0.963, and SRMR = 0.015]. Fig. 2 presents the result of the structural
model testing.
Shown in Fig. 2, the effects of both parasocial relationship (β =
0.275, p < 0.001) and sense of belonging (β = 0.383, p < 0.001) on
problematic engagement were considerably high and statistically sig­
nificant, thus, H1 and H2 were supported. The moderating effect of
number of followed influencers on the relationship between sense of
belonging and problematic engagement (β = − 0.064, p < 0.05) was
negative and statistically significant; however, the path coefficient of its
moderation on the parasocial relationship—problematic engagement
link (β = 0.038) was not statistically significant. Hence, H4 was sup­
ported, but H3 was not. As expected, the influencers’ characteristics had
positive and significant effects on parasocial relationship (physical
attractiveness: β = 0.091, p < 0.05; social attractiveness: β = 0.591, p <
0.001; self-presence: β = 0.142, p < 0.01) and sense of belonging
(physical attractiveness: β = 0.077, p < 0.05; social attractiveness: β =
0.524, p < 0.001; self-presence: β = 0.186, p < 0.001), supporting
H5–H10. The results on factors related to followers’ participation were
different from our expectation. The path coefficient of participation
comprehensiveness to sense of belonging (β = 0.109, p < 0.01) was
statistically significant, but the effect of participation comprehensive­
ness on parasocial relationship (β = 0.006, ns) was not. Therefore, H12
was supported and H11 was not. In contrast, the path coefficient of
following length was only statistically significant for parasocial rela­
tionship (β = 0.059, p < 0.05), and it was not significant for sense of
belonging (β = − 0.045, ns); thus, H13 was supported and H14 was not.
Gender, age, daily time spent on Instagram, and length of using
Instagram were included in the analysis as control variables; all of them
showed significant effects on problematic engagement. Results showed
that female users are more susceptible to problematic engagement. Age
had a negative relationship with problematic engagement; younger
users were more prone to develop problematic engagement. Time spent
on Instagram had a positive relationship with problematic engagement.
These results are in line with those of extant literature on social media
addiction (CMHA, n. d.; Su et al., 2020). Interestingly, length of using
Instagram had a negative effect on problematic engagement, which
means that users who were newer to this platform, were more likely to
develop problematic engagement with influencers.

Table 3
7. Discussion, implications, and limitations
Characteristics of the sample (n = 500).
Characteristics Number Percentage
Different from the social media addiction literature that emphasizes
Gender audience/users’ individual differences and IT artifact features and
Male 235 47% content, this study borrowed from the influencer marketing literature to
Female 265 53%
Age
study the effects of key factors in influencer relationship or attachment
Under 18 7 1.4% building on follower problematic engagement. Following social psy­
18-24 73 14.6% chology theory of attachment, we suggested that bond-based attachment
25-34 154 30.8% (i.e., parasocial relationship with influencer) and identity-based
35-44 183 36.6%
attachment (i.e., sense of belonging to the influencer community) can
45-54 49 9.8%
55-64 30 6% cause problematic engagement. We adopted a mixed-methods approach
Over 64 4 0.8% to develop and test our research model and hypotheses. First, a Delphi
Daily time spent on Instagram study was conducted to identify a list of key factors that may affect the
Less than 30 min 48 9.6% development of follower attachment to the influencer and community.
Less than 1 h 103 20.6%
1–2 h 207 41.4%
Based on the results, the research framework and hypotheses were
3–4 h 78 15.6% developed. Second, to test the research model, survey data from Insta­
More than 5 h 64 12.8% gram influencers’ followers was collected and analyzed.
Length of using Instagram Results of this study showed that both bond-based and identity-based
Less than a month 2 0.4%
attachment (means are 5.58 and 5.70, respectively) were developed
Less than six months 6 1.2%
Less than a year 15 3% among followers of influencers, which in turn can cause problematic
1–2 years 83 16.6% engagement with influencers. As expected, all studied characteristics of
2–3 years 105 21% influencers (physical and social attractiveness, and self-presence) can
3–4 years 93 18.6% increase the attachment level among followers. Among these charac­
More than 4 years 196 39.2%
teristics, social attractiveness had a stronger impact on attachment.

6
S. Farivar et al. Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288

Table 4
Measurement items.
Constructs Measurement Items Range & Anchors Reference

Perceived physical 1. I find this influencer very attractive physically. 1 to 7 (1: strongly disagree … 7: (J. E. Lee & Watkins, 2016)
attractiveness 2. I think this influencer is quite pretty. strongly agree)
3. This influencer is very sexy looking.
Perceived social 1. This influencer shares my values. 1 to 7 (1: strongly disagree … 7: Lee and Watkins (2016)
attractiveness 2. This influencer has a lot in common with me. strongly agree)
3. This influencer has thoughts and ideas that are similar to mine.
4. I think this influencer could be a friend of mine. a
5. I would like to have a friendly chat with this influencer.
Self-presence 1. This influencer uses the products/brands in her advertisements (she is 1 to 7 (1: strongly disagree … 7: Self-developed
present in her advertisement posts). strongly agree)
2. This influencer’s posts mostly contain herself (she is present in her
posts).
3. This influencer is usually present (e.g., show his/herself photos/videos)
in the promotional/advertisement posts.
Participation 1. What are your primary reasons for checking this influencer Instagram 1 to 5 (1: selecting one option … 5: Limayem et al. (2007)
comprehensiveness accounts? Check all that apply: a) enjoyment/fun selecting all options)
b) updating yourself on new things
c) receiving product information for shopping
d) getting to know the influencer’s life
e) communicating with influencers
Following length 1. For how long are you following this influencer? 1 to 7 (1: less than a month … 7: NA
more than 3 years)
Number of influencers 1. Please indicate the approximate number of influncers you are following Users’ input (continuous variable) NA
on Instagram.
Parasocial relationship 1. When I’m watching/reading the posts of this influencer, I feel as if I am 1 to 7 (1: strongly disagree … 7: (Rubin, Perse, & Powell, 1985;
part of her (his) group. strongly agree) Sokolova & Kefi, 2020)
2. I think this influencer is like an old friend.
3. I would like to meet this influencer in person. a
4. This influencer makes me feel comfortable, as if I am with friends.
Sense of belonging 1. I feel a strong sense of belonging to this influencer account. 1 to 7 (1: strongly disagree … 7: Teo, Chan, Wei, and Zhang
2. I have complete trust of others in this influencer account. strongly agree) (2003)
3. I enjoy being a follower of this influencer account.
4. I am very committed to this influencer account.
5. Overall, this influencer account has a high level of morale. a
Problematic engagement 1. I feel lost when I do not check this influencer account. 1 to 7 (1: strongly disagree … 7: Salehan and Negahban (2013)
2. I am obsessed with this influencer account. strongly agree)
3. When I do not check this influencer account, I feel disconnected.
a
Dropped from analysis in the pilot study.

Table 5
Descriptive statistics and reliability analysis.
Constructs Meana SD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10.

1. Problematic engagement 4.11 1.68 .83

2. Sense of belonging 5.70 0.99 .57 .81
3. Parasocial relationship 5.58 1.03 .54 .70 .78
4. Physical attractiveness 5.27 1.44 .42 .43 .43 .87
5. Social attractiveness 5.67 0.92 .45 .69 .71 .44 .83
6. Self-presence 5.77 0.97 .35 .52 .50 .50 .51 .76
7. Participation comprehensiveness 3.67 1.81 .41 .43 .37 .31 .46 .36 NA
8. Number of influencers 15.7 10.5 .11 .17 .13 .11 .14 .12 .18 NA
b
9. Following length 4.62 1.48 .11 .12 .20 .10 .18 .20 .24 .06 NA

Note: SD: Standard Deviation, Diagonal values are Cronbach’s alpha.

a
Arithmetic mean.
b
Less than a year.

These findings are in line with the literature on attachment, which
suggests that characteristics of the media figures are important in
affecting the level of belongingness and parasocial engagement (e.g.,
Tukachinsky & Stever, 2019). Moreover, our results are consistent with
the addiction literature which provides evidence that attachment causes
problematic behaviors such as excessive use (e.g., James, Lowry, Wal­
lace, & Warkentin, 2017).
Interestingly, follower participation attributes showed different ef­
fect patterns on the two types of attachment. Participation compre­
hensiveness positively impacted sense of belonging, but not parasocial
relationship, whereas length of following positively impacted parasocial
relationship, but not sense of belonging. This means that users who had a
more comprehensive participation were more likely to develop a sense
of belonging to the influencer community, but not necessarily a higher
attachment to the influencer because the influencer community may
better satisfy the comprehensive needs. This result confirms the findings
in the literature which suggests that the users’ level of participation in a
community associates positively with their sense of belonging (e.g.,
Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005; Maestas, Vaquera, &
Zehr, 2007; H.; Zhao, Sullivan, & Mellenius, 2014). On the other hand,
as followers continue to follow an influencer, they develop greater
parasocial relationship with the influencer. However, the length of
following did not affect the identity-based attachment to the influencer
community. This finding is in contrast with previous studies in other
contexts such as sense of neighborhood which showed that length of
living in a community could positively affect sense of belonging (Young,

7
S. Farivar et al.
Fig. 2. Structural model.
Russell, & Powers, 2004). However, our result suggested that in Insta­
gram and influencer community, the length of following does not impact
the sense of belonging. One explanation for this could be that people
develop a stable sense of community on Instagram fairly quickly, such
that afterwards more time on the site does not change their sense of
community. This idea of diminishing returns in terms of sense of com­
munity merits further research.
7.1. Implications for research
This research contributed to the current literature in several ways.
First, it stressed the dark side of the endeavours of social media influ­
encers in engaging followers. Previous studies have mostly focused on
how to improve marketing effectiveness of social media influencers, but
largely ignored the potential negative consequences of influencer-
follower relationship. Our study is among the first that considers this
important, yet largely neglected aspect of social media influencers. We
call for future research to examine dark side of influencer in further
details.
In addition, this study combined the social psychology theory of
attachment with the influencer marketing research to understand the
negative effect of influencer-follower interactions. Influencer marketing
literature has suggested the importance of parasocial relationship, a
bond-based attachment, in influencer-follower interactions; based on
the attachment theory, we introduced the identity-based attachment, i.
e., sense of belonging, into study to develop a refined understanding on
influencer-follower relationship. Our results showed that both types of
attachment, i.e., parasocial relationship with the influencer and sense of
belonging to the influencer community, were developed among fol­
lowers of influencers. Sense of belonging was more influential than
parasocial relationship in affecting followers’ problematic engagement
but was subject to the negative moderation of the number of influencers
followed. Thus far, scholars have mostly emphasized real social re­
lationships on social media (Sutcliffe, Binder, & Dunbar, 2018). Our
findings therefore behoved scholars who study information systems
psychology to pay closer attention to parasocial relationships developed
over social media and other technologies.
We also found that influencer characteristics played a significant role
in development of attachment among followers. These are peripheral
cues that should not, if people were fully rational, influence their de­
cisions (Bhattacherjee & Sanford, 2006; Lowry et al., 2012). As such,
while not surprising, we demonstrated that followers deviate from full
rationality. Findings showed that followers would develop greater
attachment with influencers who are perceived as attractive, both so­
cially and physically, and are more present in their posts. Interestingly,
comparing the effect sizes (f-squared) of relationships showed that the
effect of social attractiveness on attachment is greater than physical
attractiveness. Influencer marketing literature has mainly emphasized
the importance of influencers’ physical attractiveness (Lee & Watkins,
2016; Sakib et al., 2020); however, our findings showed we need more
emphasis on social attractiveness instead.
8
Computers in Human Behavior 133 (2022) 107288
On the other hand, followers’ participation attributes revealed a
different pattern. Followers of a longer time develop greater parasocial
relationship with the influencer; however, sense of belonging, an
identity-based attachment, would not be affected by the length of
following. In contrast, length of following may increase the familiarity
with an influencer and affects the perception of parasocial relationship.
Together these findings suggested that sense of belonging and parasocial
relationships can have different antecedents and should be studied in
tandem, as both can influence social media users’ behaviors.
Interestingly, the effect of participation comprehensiveness was in
contrast with that of following length. Participation comprehensiveness
had positive effect on sense of belonging; but did not affect the para­
social relationship. This may reflect that the multiple purposes and ac­
tivities of followers in following an influencer are largely oriented from
community participation. That is, beyond receiving and reading influ­
encers’ posts, when followers comment, interact, and vote, they often
engage with other followers. As such, participation comprehensiveness
fosters identity-based attachment with the influencer community. This
result is in line with studies in other contexts, e.g., in online learning
communities, as learners participate and interact, they become more
aware of the community and they feel the presence of other members (H.
Zhao et al., 2014). The different effects of participation comprehen­
siveness and following length on attachment formation imply that they
may be used to categorize followers to different types when identifying
vulnerable subjects for problematic engagement. More research can be
conducted for finding the optimal balance between social media use
length and comprehensiveness, or moderators that can influence their
effects.
Altogether, the findings portrayed a different take on problematic
social media engagement, that differs from prior views in at least two
ways. First, we focused on a specific activity on social media that is the
source of problems, namely engagement with influencers. Second, we
used a social attachment perspective that can explain through rela­
tionship formation how influencers can, as a by-product of their efforts,
lead to problematic engagement, i.e., to a relatively unexplored dark
side of social media influencing. These extensions pave the way for more
research on dark sides of social media influencers; specially on studying
social attachment, and relationships as a source for such dark sides; and
influencer characteristics, follower characteristics and affordances that
can drive such problematic online behaviors.
7.2. Implications for practice
The findings of this study have several practical insights that can help
both influencers and followers. First, followers should become more
aware of their attachment to influencers developed during their social
media following activities, and their negative consequences. Previous
studies mainly focused on positive aspects of social media influencing
such as its commercial value in marketing and sales; however, the dark
side of this phenomenon needs further attention. On the other hand,
influencers can use the findings of our study to optimize their relation­
ship with their followers. As results showed, characteristics of influ­
encers like their presence in the posts can make followers to develop
attachment. While influencers can focus on these aspects, they should be
aware of the possible problematic engagement too and should try to
reduce the chances of problematic behaviour among their followers.
Studies showed that users with problematic behaviour may decide to
stop using the service after a while.
7.3. Limitations and future research
This research studied social media influencing and followers’ prob­
lematic engagement in an empirical context of Instagram. Instagram was
chosen because it is a major social media platform with active
influencer-follower interactions and activities. It is the most commonly
studied social media influencing context in the influencer marketing
S. Farivar et al.
literature (Breves et al., 2019; Casaló et al., 2020; Farivar et al., 2021).
However, other social networking sites, such as YouTube and TikTok,
are also used by influencers, where follower’s problematic engagement
may be a serious issue for study. Future studies can examine follower
behaviour on these platforms and compare their differences. This will
not only enable the validation and generalization of the results from this
research but may also reveal platform specific effects in
influencer-follower interactions.
This research relied on a cross-sectional survey to study the rela­
tionship among social medial influencing factors, followers’ attachment,
and followers’ problematic engagement. Many concepts in this study
involved a temporal process. For example, attachment and problem
engagement change over time. This temporal aspect is shown in this
research in that followers’ following length affects the level of parasocial
relationship. However, the temporal effect studied in a cross-sectional
survey research is limited. Future research can conduct a longitudinal
study to examine followers’ behavior over time and to better understand
how followers’ attachment and problematic engagement evolve.
Finally, the dark side of social media influencers is multidimensional
and often involves complicated behavioural, social, and psychological
factors. As a pioneer study on the topic, this research focused on prob­
lematic engagement of followers. Future research can explore additional
issues, such as depression and anxiety, and link between following
influencers and followers’ wellbeing.
Authors statement
Samira Farivar: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology,
Funding acquisition, Writing – original draft, Formal analysis, Software,
Validation, Writing – review & editing. Fang Wang: Conceptualization,
Investigation, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Writing – original
draft, Validation, Writing – review & editing. Ofir Turel: Methodology,
Validation, Writing- Review & Editing.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (Grant number: 430-2020-01009).
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