Between fear and trust: Investigating self-image disclosure on TikTok through cognition-affect-conation and social comparison perspectives

With the rapid growth of TikTok as a prevalent short-video platform, self-image disclosure has become a common yet complex behavior influenced by psychological and emotional factors. Drawing on the cognition-affect-conation (CAC) framework, this study investigates how privacy issues and appearance comparison impact self-image disclosure on TikTok. Using PLS-SEM on survey data from 768 participants in China, the findings reveal that both privacy concerns and appearance anxiety negatively impact TikTok self-image disclosure, with appearance anxiety playing a stronger inhibitory role. Furthermore, we find that compared with social comparison orientation, social self-comparison perception contributes more to inducing appearance anxiety. In addition, trust in TikTok emerges as the most important positive predictor. These results contribute to the extension of self-disclosure research and the development of social comparison theory. Finally, this study provides some practical suggestions for platform governance and policymaking. • Trust emerges as the most influential factor promoting self-image disclosure on TikTok. • Privacy concerns and appearance anxiety discourage TikTok users from disclosing personal images or videos. • Appearance anxiety significantly inhibits self-image disclosure and has a stronger effect than privacy concerns. • Comparing oneself to one's digital image drives appearance anxiety more than comparing with others.