The effect of social media influencers on the perception of hijab: Sample of Cumhuriyet University students

Thanks to the technological developments that have emerged in recent years, access to any technology has become easier, which has increased the interest of young people, especially the most open audience to development and changle, on social media. The change and transformation in hijab clothing has been examined in many studies. However, this study, which we examine the effect of social media phenomena on the change in hijab perception, is a first in the field of Psychology of Religion. The sharing of social media influencers from everyday life, the advertisements they receive, and the different styles they use in the product promotion, whether or not aware of, cause a change and transformation in the hijab perception of the young people. Social media influencers that have emerged with the widespread use of social media in recent years have been divided into sections in time and created their own influencers in a section and made them visible to everyone. This research is important in terms of examining the effects of social media influencers who are in hijab on the youth's perception of hijab who are studying at university. Additionally, this study is important in terms of contributing to the studies on the perception of hijab and social media influencers. The main purpose of our study is to examine the effects of social media influencers on hijab perception and the reasons for this effect. In the first part of our study, which consists of two parts, a literature review was made on social media and hijab topics. In the second part, which constitutes the applied part, the necessary analyzes were carried out by applying our survey questions. Data were collected by using the Survey method, which is one of the quantitative research techniques. A stratified sampling model was preferred in sample selection. Since there is currently no scale to measure the effect of social media influencers on the perception of hijab, the questionnaire questions were created by scanning various literature, journals, articles, and theses. The questionnaire questions were applied to 412 students with hijab studying at different faculties in Cumhuriyet University during the 2019-2020 academic year after the necessary permissions were obtained and the participants were given the necessary information to fill the questions objectively. The data obtained were analyzed with the SPSS Statistics 21.0 package program. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that there is a significant relationship between the presence of social media influencers and the change of hijab perception. Furthermore, significant differences were found between the faculty variable, the time spent on social media, the number of social media influencers followed, and the change of university students' perception of the hijab. Key Words: Social Media, Influencer, Hijab, Hijab Perception, Psychology, Psychology of Religion.