EXPRESS: It Is Not Mine: Face Count and Social Media Engagement

Drawing on Gestalt psychology, simplicity and psychological ownership theory, this study examines the impact of face count in travel influencers' Instagram photos on social media engagement. A multi-method approach is used including face recognition analysis and experimental design. Findings reveal that increasing the number of faces can decrease user engagement, whereas the feeling of others’ ownership mediates this effect. This paper offers a novel perspective into the growing literature on faces by considering the number of faces as a continuum, rather than limiting the focus to specific facial features or viewing face presence as a simple binary (either present or absent).