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Like motivations >
Hedonic motivation
According to the Usage and Gratifications Theory, all human satisfactions come from innate needs, and just as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory proposes a progression of five levels of needs: physiological, safety, social, respect, and self-actualisation, the most fundamental consequence of the satisfaction of any need is the quenching of that need (Peng, 2018). Users can be seen as individuals with specific needs that vary from one individual to another (Quanmeipai, 2020). Individuals access media content based on their own social and psychological needs and fulfil their particular interests (Quanmeipai, 2020), meaning that the audiences are not passive but proactive, and their acts of using social media come with motivations (Peng, 2018).
“Like”, as a form of interaction in social media, plays a vital role in opinion expression and emotional interaction (2019, Jiang). The behaviour of pressing the “like” button is an interactive form of interpersonal communication. From the perspective of communication psychology, the motivations for it can be generally divided into hedonic motivation, utilitarian motivation, compliance motivation, conformity motivation, and affiliation motivation, etc. (Chin et al., 2015).
Hedonic motivation is related to playfulness, entertainment, and enjoyment (Chin et al., 2015). Simply put, when users like the content as they agree with it or appreciate the creator, their emotions are positive.
Utilitarian motivation
Internet users also consider utilitarian motives when assessing websites or developing usage attitudes and behaviours (Chin et al., 2015). According to a theory put forth by Hummel and Lechner (2002; Chin et al., 2015), social networks persist because they enable users to gain benefits through mutually beneficial exchanges of knowledge and information, which in turn supports the networks' continued existence (Chin et al., 2015). In other words, social media usage can lead to information acquisition or convenience. On Xiaohongshu, informative content such as cooking, clothing and accessory styling tutorials often receive many likes.
Compliance motivation
Compliance refers to the phenomenon that individuals will take into account the expectations of others when expressing their opinions; that is, they will consider the feelings of others and give credit to accommodate such feelings (Chin et al., 2015).
People with higher authority can influence people with lower authority (Chin et al., 2015). In virtual communities like social media platforms, the influence of posters can lead people to adopt a submissive mindset (Chin et al., 2015) .
Conformity motivation
According to Lascu, Bearden, & Rose (1995; Chin et al., 2015), conformity is the phenomenon in which a person’s behaviour or perspective is influenced or altered by a group or a collective force to follow a widely held position, even when that opinion may be incorrect.
Affiliation motivation
Affiliation motivation is the propensity for a person in a culture centred around groups to act in a sociable manner to win others' favour due to the innate need to preserve cordial interpersonal ties (Chin et al., 2015).