Relating social skills and social media use to consumer behavior: An investigation across the autism spectrum

In this study, we focus on the role of social functioning on consumer behavior, exploring social media use as a mediating factor. In order to facilitate our identification of social functioning competence as a factor, we increased the range by including a subgroup of respondents who identified themselves as being on the autism spectrum. Indeed, this group stood out as having difficulties in getting along with persons they interact with at school, at work and at home. We used these measures to define an individual differences index of social functioning that we call Quality of Social Functioning (QoSF). In a preliminary report, we showed that this index was predictive of social media use and its influence, with those scoring higher reacting more favorably and utilizing more of its features. In the main study, we focused on the content of social media posts by providing photos of posts that depicted either group activities or individual activities. Those scoring lower on our index gave lower ratings of posts in general, but especially for those posts depicting group activities. Results are discussed in terms of the important role of social functioning in the use of social media and its content as a vehicle for informing consumer behavior. We describe how the results of our study and related studies can be used by marketers to improve the lives of especially vulnerable consumers.