Impact of content characteristics and emotion on behavioral engagement in social media: literature review and research agenda

Abstract We present a review of N = 45 studies, which deals with the effect of characteristics of social media content (e.g., topic or length) on behavioral engagement. In addition, we reviewed the possibility of a mediating effect of emotional responses in this context (e.g., arousing content has been shown to increase engagement behavior). We find a diverse body of research, particularly for the varying content characteristics that affect engagement, yet without any conclusive results. We therefore also highlight potential confounding effects causing such diverging results for the relationship between content characteristics and content engagement. We find no study that evaluates the mediating effect of emotional responses in the content—engagement relationship and therefore call for further investigations. In addition, future research should apply an extended communication model adapted for the social media context to guarantee rigorous research.