The Social Psychology Underlying P2P Sharing on Social Media
(A2026-134033)

AUTHORS

Yuly Hong, NEOMA Business School; Yiping (Amy) Song, NEOMA Business School; Yunqi Su, NEOMA Business School

ABSTRACT

Peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing platforms are increasingly embedded in social-media-based interactions, yet little is known about how platform environments shape consumer responses to sharing businesses. Across five controlled experiments, we show that platform intimacy (perceived relational closeness among users) enhances consumer evaluations of P2P sharing businesses, an effect that is specific to sharing contexts and absent for conventional online retail. We identify a serial mediation pathway: higher platform intimacy increases communal orientation, which strengthens psychological ownership of shared products, which in turn improves attitudes toward P2P sharing. Symbolic versus functional consumption meaning moderates this process. The intimacy-driven pathway is stronger when shared products are perceived as more symbolic, either due to inherent product traits or to advertising framing applied to otherwise identical items. These findings reveal when and why the relational structure of social media platforms matters for P2P sharing business success. Keywords: Peer-to-peer sharing; Social media advertising; Relational embeddedness