The Siren's call: How social media influencers are using identity leadership to shape diagnostic label identification and self‐care intentions

As social media becomes a central source of mental health information, there is growing concern that influencers can lead people to interpret everyday experiences as symptoms of mental ill health. Across two experimental studies that utilized distinct media formats, we examined how, by creating, representing, advancing and embedding a shared sense of 'us' (i.e. engaging in identity leadership), influencers' ADHD-related content shapes perceptions of self, symptoms and behavioural intentions. In Study 1 (N = 289 men) authentic video stimuli demonstrating high- versus low-identity leadership were extracted from TikTok, whilst in Study 2 (N = 259 men) tightly controlled text posts were used. Across both studies, identity leadership was associated with greater identification as ADHDers, help-seeking attitudes and self-care intentions. Planned comparisons in Study 1 provided some evidence that high-identity-leadership content increased participants' identification as ADHDers. In Study 2, identity leadership was particularly important for mental health professional influencers (compared to lay influencers) in promoting self-care intentions. These findings suggest that influencers can use identity leadership to meaningfully influence both people's understanding and response to mental health content.