Humblebragging as a Strategic Self-Presentation Dilemma: Motivational Inference, Sincerity Judgement, and the Amplifying Role of Digital Platforms

Department of Psychology, Durham University, DH1 3LE Durham, United Kingdom

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

Humblebragging--wrapping self-enhancement in the surface form of 0complaint or modesty--has attracted growing attention in social psychology and digital media research. Yet the literature remains fragmented: studies often document its negative reception, but offer a less integrated account of why it arises, how audiences evaluate it, and when cultural and platform contexts reshape these judgments. Drawing on impression management and motivational attribution perspectives, this review synthesises experimental and cross-cultural findings on the formation, social consequences, and key moderators of humblebrags. Across studies, outcomes depend less on the achievement content itself than on the perceived mismatch between form and intent, which shifts recipients’ attention towards motives and sincerity. These evaluations are further shaped by relational cues (e.g., roles and authority), modesty norms, and platform-level dissemination structures. On this view, humblebragging reflects a structural tension between capability signalling and normative expectations: people try to showcase advantages while remaining socially acceptable. Once interpreted as strategic, judgments move from competence to credibility--an effect that may be intensified in digital environments where visibility and comparison are amplified.