Wagner, Rafael LuisPinto, Diego CostaShuqair, SalehValenzuela, AnaBabin, Barry J.2026-05-282026-05-282026-05-190742-6046PURE: 162636135PURE UUID: 3847a461-7ddf-4f52-95e5-3ee94b94e276Scopus: 105038843513WOS: 001768806100001ORCID: /0000-0003-4418-9450/work/215726436http://hdl.handle.net/10362/203510Wagner, R. L., Pinto, D. C., Shuqair, S., Valenzuela, A., & Babin, B. J. (2026). When Social Media Ideals Backfire: How Idealized Digital Standards Undermine Self-Efficacy and Goal Attainability. Psychology and Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.70172 --- %ABS3%Consumers increasingly pursue long-term goals with the support of social media environments, where idealized standards influence how success is defined and evaluated. Although such standards are often assumed to motivate self-improvement, we examine how exposure to idealized digital representations affects motivation during ongoing goal pursuit. Drawing on goal systems and self-regulation theories, we propose that idealized standards function as external goal-regulating systems that inflate perceived distance between one's current state and a desired goal state, undermining self-efficacy and goal attainability. Across five studies, including a large-scale text-mining analysis and four controlled experiments, we show that idealized representations weaken motivation not by increasing perceived effort, but by inflating perceived goal distance and eroding self-efficacy. We further demonstrate that these effects depend on how goals are construed. Activating a performance-oriented mindset amplifies the negative impact of idealized standards, whereas activating a mastery-oriented mindset attenuates it. Finally, we identify a content-design intervention that mitigates the motivational costs of idealized standards: emphasizing the means of goal attainment rather than idealized end states preserves motivation despite exposure to idealized goals.952460engdigital environmentsgoal pursuitidealized standardsperceived attainabilityself-efficacyself-regulationApplied PsychologyMarketingSDG 3 - Good Health and Well-beingSDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growthjournal article10.1002/mar.70172https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105038843513https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001768806100001