Social media greatly facilitate online social interaction among friends, and user behavior in social interaction may be influenced by interpersonal relationships. While individuals sometimes do enjoy the content shared by friends, they may also feel that they have a moral obligation to like what their friends share. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response model, this paper examines whether the characteristics of interpersonal relationships are associated with moral obligation as well as whether moral obligation is associated with “like” intention. By using data from 348 users of WeChat Moments, we provide empirical evidence that the stimuli of interpersonal relationships (perceived authority, perceived closeness, and peer referent) are positively associated with the sense of moral obligation, which in turn, is positively associated with user intention to click the Like button on their friends’ postings on social media. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

社交媒体极大地促进了朋友之间的在线社交互动，社交互动中的用户行为可能会受到人际关系的影响。尽管个人有时确实喜欢与朋友共享的内容，但他们可能还会觉得自己有道义上的义务去喜欢朋友共享的内容。本文基于刺激－生物－反应模型，研究了人际关系的特征是否与道德义务相关联，以及道德义务是否与“类似”意图相关联。通过使用来自348个微信朋友圈用户的数据，我们提供了经验证据，表明人际关系的刺激（感知的权威，感知的亲密性和同伴指称）与道德义务感正相关，反过来，与用户打算在社交媒体上点击其朋友的帖子上的“赞”按钮正相关。研究结果的理论和实践意义进行了讨论。