When Does Integrating Human Values in Brands’ Communications Lower Social Media Engagement?

Advertising offers a unique lens through which to examine the shifting values, norms, and ideals of society over time. Far beyond promoting products, advertisements and brand communications reflect and reinforce what cultures define as desirable, acceptable, or aspirational. Building on Schwartz’s human values framework, this study examines the differential impact of messages containing human values on social media engagement. Analyzing 27,900 branded posts from 47 brands across fashion, retail, sportswear, and tech & electronics industries, the study employs text mining to categorize messages into conservation, self-transcendence, openness to change, and self-enhancement values. Findings reveal that high human value content does not necessarily lead to greater engagement. Specifically, fashion brands show an inverted U-shaped pattern, where posts with lower human value expressions generate more engagement. After controlling for posting time, emotionality, and complexity, engagement levels vary for values like openness to change. This research contributes to the literature by examining the threshold effect, the point at which value alignment begins to lose its effect and drawing on persuasion knowledge theory to explain how value-based messages may shape audience behavioral engagement.