Strategic self-praise in a female-dominant online community

Abstract This study adopts an emic perspective and a mixed-methods approach to examine 190 instances of female self-praise on Xiaohongshu. The analysis shows that competence-related themes, modified explicit strategies, and persona-oriented purposes dominate self-praise, with notable correlations between these aspects within Xiaohongshu’s weak-tie, female-dominant community. Profit-oriented posts combine explicit self-praise with competence to enhance credibility and promotional effectiveness, whereas persona-oriented posts use implicit strategies to foreground character traits, fostering authenticity and community resonance. These findings illustrate that self-praise on Xiaohongshu is collectively shaped by platform affordances and gendered community norms, being reframed as a socially legitimate and value-oriented discursive practice.