The Structural Relationship Between Instagram Use and Tehran Citizens’ Attitudes toward Purchasing Goods and Services: The Mediating Role of Lifestyle

Abstract

The expansion of visual social media, particularly Instagram, has intertwined media experience, lifestyle formation, and consumer attitudes. In platform-mediated environments, users encounter not only explicit commercial messages but also representations of lifestyles, tastes, and symbolic meanings of goods. While research on social media has extensively covered purchase intention, trust, and para social interaction, the mediating role of lifestyle as a multidimensional structural mechanism remains under-explored. This study examines how lifestyle mediates the relationship between Instagram use and Tehran citizens’ attitudes toward purchasing goods and services. Purchase attitude was conceptualized through cognitive, affective, and behavioral (readiness to purchase) dimensions. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,200 respondents in Tehran, analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5,000 bootstrapping resamples. Results showed that Instagram use positively relates to lifestyle (β=.298, p<.001). Lifestyle, in turn, positively impacted cognitive (β=.342), affective (β=.361), and behavioral (β=.352) purchase attitudes. Direct relationships between Instagram use and these three dimensions were also significant. Indirect effects were,.102,.108, and. 105, respectively. VAF values (26.8%, 30.2%, and 28.8%) confirmed complementary mediation. This study contributes to communication and consumer-culture research by defining lifestyle as a communication-mediated mechanism linking platform use to multidimensional purchase attitudes within the Iranian urban context.