Data related to Chinese audiences’ sense of cultural superiority when watching videos in which foreign internet influencers praise Chinese culture or display no explicit cultural orientation

Data Description: Illusory Cultural Confidence via Foreign Influencers’ Praise
This study explores Chinese netizens’ preference for foreign influencers’ pro-Chinese culture content, testing four hypotheses: H1a/H1b (viewing praising videos boosts cultural superiority regardless of face pursuit), H2 (face pursuit moderates this relationship), and H3 (cultural superiority stems from cultural inferiority). Adopting a mixed-methods design (approved by East China Normal University’s HR2-0388-2025), it recruited 200 valid participants (19-35 years old, 88.5% effective rate) split into high/low face pursuit groups (median split, mean scores 34.65 vs. 28.43) and further into experimental (praising videos) and control (neutral content) subgroups (50 each). Face consciousness was measured via Chan et al.’s (2009) scale (Cronbach’s α=0.80), and cultural superiority via the revised GENE Scale (α=0.764). The experiment included pre-test, 10-minute video exposure, post-test with attention checks, followed by 23 in-depth interviews. Results supported H1a/H1b: paired-samples t-tests showed significant post-test cultural superiority increases in experimental groups (high face: ΔM=-5.64, t=-7.49; low face: ΔM=-4.98, t=-6.73; p<0.001), with a main effect of video type (F=81.84, p<0.001). H2 was unsupported (three-way interaction F=2.06, p=0.152), and H3 was confirmed by interviews, where participants linked external praise-driven confidence to latent inferiority, describing it as “fleeting” and “hollow” versus enduring internally rooted confidence. Notable findings include the universal impact of praising content across face pursuit levels, a disconnect between individual face concerns and collective cultural affect, and the illusory nature of externally dependent confidence. The data indicates that foreign influencers’ praise triggers compensatory cultural superiority, reflecting unconsolidated cultural subjectivity shaped by history, media algorithms, and social emotions. For use, it informs cross-cultural communication research and cultural confidence strategies, with caveats about the university student sample’s homogeneity and the need to distinguish cultural superiority from genuine confidence. Genuine cultural confidence requires internal reflexivity over external validation, and future research should expand sample diversity.