Partner choices in the age of social media: are there significant relationships between following influencers on Instagram and partner choice criteria?

Abstract

Social Media Influencers (SMIs) are active members of social networks who have a huge number of followers. Some studies have called them the opinion leaders of the age of social media. These people are likely to affect the different aspects of beliefs and/or behaviors of the people who follow them. The current study aimed to investigate the relationships between people’s partner choice criteria on the one hand, and the amount and type of attention they dedicated to influencers on the other hand. A survey was conducted to see if people who pay more or less attention to influencers perceived appearance, wealth, religiousness, culture, and personality as important criteria in their partners. The results showed that there were direct relationships between dedicating attention to influencers and perceiving wealth and appearance to be important. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between dedicating attention to influencers and religiousness but it was an indirect relationship.