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A Mimetic Approach to Social Influence on Instagram

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Hubert Etienne at Meta
Hubert Etienne
François Charton
François Charton
François Charton
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Abstract and Figures

We combine philosophical theories with quantitative analyses of online data to propose a sophisticated approach to social media influencers. Identifying influencers as communication systems emerging from a dialectic interactional process between content creators and in-development audiences, we define them mainly using the composition of their audience and the type of publications they use to communicate. To examine these two parameters, we analyse the audiences of 619 Instagram accounts of French, English, and American influencers and 2,400 of their publications in light of Girard’s mimetic theory and McLuhan’s media theory. We observe meaningful differences in influencers’ profiles, typical audiences, and content type across influencers’ classes, supporting the claim that such communication systems are articulated around ‘reading contracts’ upon which influencers’ image is based and from which their influence derives. While the upkeep of their influence relies on them sticking to this contract, we observe that successful influencers shift their content type when growing their audiences and explain the strategies they implement to address this double bind. Different types of contract breaches then lead to distinct outcomes, which we identify by analysing various types of followers’ feedback. In mediating social interactions, digital platforms reshape society in various ways; this interdisciplinary study helps understand how the digitalisation of social influencers affects reciprocity and mimetic behaviours.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Philosophy & Technology (2024) 37:65
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-024-00736-w
1 3
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Mimetic Approach toSocial Influence onInstagram
HubertEtienne1,2,3 · FrançoisCharton3
Received: 18 July 2023 / Accepted: 24 March 2024 / Published online: 22 May 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024
Abstract
We combine philosophical theories with quantitative analyses of online data to pro-
pose a sophisticated approach to social media influencers. Identifying influencers
as communication systems emerging from a dialectic interactional process between
content creators and in-development audiences, we define them mainly using the
composition of their audience and the type of publications they use to communi-
cate. To examine these two parameters, we analyse the audiences of 619 Instagram
accounts of French, English, and American influencers and 2,400 of their publica-
tions in light of Girard’s mimetic theory and McLuhan’s media theory. We observe
meaningful differences in influencers’ profiles, typical audiences, and content type
across influencers’ classes, supporting the claim that such communication systems
are articulated around ‘reading contracts’ upon which influencers’ image is based
and from which their influence derives. While the upkeep of their influence relies on
them sticking to this contract, we observe that successful influencers shift their con-
tent type when growing their audiences and explain the strategies they implement to
address this double bind. Different types of contract breaches then lead to distinct
outcomes, which we identify by analysing various types of followers’ feedback. In
mediating social interactions, digital platforms reshape society in various ways; this
interdisciplinary study helps understand how the digitalisation of social influencers
affects reciprocity and mimetic behaviours.
Keywords Computational philosophy· Influencers· Instagram· Social comparison·
René Girard· Marshall McLuhan
* Hubert Etienne
hae@meta.com
François Charton
fcharton@meta.com
1 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Department ofPhilosophy, Paris, France
2 Laboratory ofComputer Sciences (LIP6), Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
3 Facebook AI Research, Paris, France
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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