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The Siren's call: How social media influencers are using identity leadership to shape diagnostic label identification and self‐care intentions

Yuang Cheng et al.

British Journal of Social Psychology2026https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70078article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

As social media becomes a central source of mental health information, there is growing concern that influencers can lead people to interpret everyday experiences as symptoms of mental ill health. Across two experimental studies that utilized distinct media formats, we examined how, by creating, representing, advancing and embedding a shared sense of 'us' (i.e. engaging in identity leadership), influencers' ADHD-related content shapes perceptions of self, symptoms and behavioural intentions. In Study 1 (N = 289 men) authentic video stimuli demonstrating high- versus low-identity leadership were extracted from TikTok, whilst in Study 2 (N = 259 men) tightly controlled text posts were used. Across both studies, identity leadership was associated with greater identification as ADHDers, help-seeking attitudes and self-care intentions. Planned comparisons in Study 1 provided some evidence that high-identity-leadership content increased participants' identification as ADHDers. In Study 2, identity leadership was particularly important for mental health professional influencers (compared to lay influencers) in promoting self-care intentions. These findings suggest that influencers can use identity leadership to meaningfully influence both people's understanding and response to mental health content.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70078

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@article{yuang2026,
  title        = {{The Siren's call: How social media influencers are using identity leadership to shape diagnostic label identification and self‐care intentions}},
  author       = {Yuang Cheng et al.},
  journal      = {British Journal of Social Psychology},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.70078},
}

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The Siren's call: How social media influencers are using identity leadership to shape diagnostic label identification and self‐care intentions

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.