Meaning in life improves response to others' self-promotion

While social media serves as a beneficial means of interpersonal connection and communication, its widespread use for self-promotion has been associated with adverse psychological effects on users, including decreased emotional well-being and increased negative affect. This paper examines how individual differences in meaning in life presence (MIL presence) influence emotional responses to others’ self-promotional content, advancing our understanding of how and why consumers experience social media positively or negatively. Across four studies (total N = 1599), we demonstrate that both trait-level MIL presence and a brief intervention involving reflection on the presence of meaning in one’s life significantly improve viewers’ emotional responses to others’ self-promotion. These findings contribute to our understanding of individual differences in psychological responses to social media content and offer practical implications for protecting user well-being in digital environments.