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With growing concerns about users’ well-being on social media, research stresses the importance of threat appraisals as a crucial first step in motivating self-protective actions. This study, in view of the prevalence of parasocial relationships between followers and social media influencers, aims to unravel the complex dynamics of followers’ threat perceptions within these relationships. Specifically, it examines how factors such as perceived self-efficacy to disengage and the positive affect of social media use influence threat appraisals.

A theoretical model is proposed based on appraisal theory to examine the impact of parasocial relationships on threat perception in engagement. It is empirically tested with data from 186 Instagram users.

The study reveals an overall positive relationship between parasocial relationships and perceived threat. This relationship is moderated by followers’ perception of self-efficacy to disengage – followers with a high sense of self-efficacy to disengage experience a decrease in threat perception as their parasocial relationships strengthen, whereas followers with a low sense of self-efficacy to disengage report an increase in threat perception with higher levels of parasocial relationships. This interplay is pronounced when followers experience average or below-average levels of positive affect on social media but diminishes when the positive affect is high.

This work contributes insights into social media influencers, threat appraisal dynamics and digital well-being research. Bridging a critical gap in existing knowledge, the study identifies the pivotal roles of followers’ self-efficacy to disengage and positive affect in shaping their threat appraisals toward parasocial relationships with social media influencers. This not only advances theoretical frameworks but also enhances our understanding of the nuanced dynamics of user reactions to parasocial engagements. Our findings offer practical insights for researchers, practitioners and platform developers aiming to cultivate healthy and responsible social media engagement in the digital era, ultimately contributing to individual well-being.

Social commerce websites have emerged as new platforms which integrate social media features with traditional commerce aspects to enhance users’ purchasing experience. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social factors such as trust toward site members in determining users’ trust and risk evaluations, and the role of social commerce use habit in attenuating users’ rational risk and trust considerations for developing purchase intentions.

Relying on the risk deterrence perspective and rational decision-making models involving trust and habit, this study proposes a set of hypotheses which are tested through analyzing survey data using structural equation modeling techniques.

Results show that commerce risk deters purchasing intentions; trust toward the social commerce website increases users’ purchasing intentions; and trust toward the site members indirectly increases purchasing intentions. Moreover, trust toward site members reduces perceived commerce risk. Findings also show that habit modulates trust and risk effects on use decisions in this context; habit moderates (weakens) the relationships between commerce risk and purchase intentions and between trust toward the social commerce site and purchase intentions.

This study extends theories on decision making in social settings such as in the case of social commerce. It does so by accounting for unique modulating effects of habit in social settings in which social aspects such as trust in other members and risk are unique and important.