More friends on SNS, more materialism? The moderating roles of self-esteem and social comparison orientation

Chenhan Ruan; Zhihuang Lu; Huizhong Li; Wenhe Lin; Dan Li; Jingting Yuan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0283723

Abstract

On social networking sites, users are continuously exposed to a variety of posts from the networked individuals. Such information may often influence recipients’ perceptions of what is important and goal pursuits such as materialism. Even though several studies have examined the negative consequences of using social networking sites, less attention has been paid to the role of friends’ number and its impact on people’s life goal pursuits. This study aimed to investigate the dark side of online friends and explored why and when more friends in social networking sites would promote materialism. Based on a sample of 264 WeChat users, study 1 discovered that friends’ number positively impacted materialism through extrinsic goal (i.e., wealth and status). Additionally, such association was moderated by social comparison orientation and self-esteem. Importantly, self-esteem buffers the detrimental effect of friends’ number on materialism while social comparison orientation increases it. Study 2 further tested the causal relationship and showed that friends’ number on SNS might become a signal to indicate materialism via an experiment. In conclusion, our findings add to the understanding of psychological processes regarding the dark side of online friends’ number and render suggestions for developing positive personal value.

Citation: Ruan C, Lu Z, Li H, Lin W, Li D, Yuan J (2023) More friends on SNS, more materialism? The moderating roles of self-esteem and social comparison orientation. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0283723. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283723

Editor: Sohaib Mustafa, Beijing University of Technology, CHINA

Received: April 6, 2022; Accepted: March 15, 2023; Published: May 10, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Ruan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72002036), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71832015), the Fujian Scientific Research Foundation for Youth Scholars of Provincial Education Department (JAS20066), and the Fujian Social Science Planning Youth Project (FJ2021C092). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Social networking sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, WhatsApp and WeChat, are regarded as a powerful tool for connecting and information sharing. For instance, active Facebook users reached 2.91 billion in the United States [1] and WeChat, the most widely used SNS in China connected more than 1.26 billion monthly active users [2]. On SNSs, users can freely present experiences, feelings and thoughts for self-presentation with many online friends [3,4]. In the meantime, they are also continuously exposed to updated posts from networked friends. Such information may subsequently shape their own value and life goal pursuits. Given that friends in SNSs exhibit different interaction modes and tie strength [5,6], it would be interesting to figure out how more friends in SNSs influence users’ values such as materialistic tendency.

Friends in SNSs refer to the connections based on SNSs that share profiles, information and maintain relationship [7,8]. Classical studies on relationship formation focus on the positive aspects of friends’ number. Since online friends serve as social capital [5,6], connections with friends in SNSs would bring trust, happiness [9], sense of belonging [10] and life satisfaction [11,12], especially for students facing cross-cultural adaption [13]. On the contrary, some research indicates that more friends may induce negative emotional outcomes such as SNSs’ fatigue [14–16], depression [17–19], fear of missing out [17] and loneliness [20].

Although recent studies started to focus on some materialistic behaviors by SNSs’ usage such as impulsive buying [12,21,22] and conspicuous consumption [23], it is still unclear whether and how friends’ number would drive the development of materialistic tendency. In our research, we argued that SNS friends’ number positively lead to materialism value, the belief in the importance to acquire money and possessions [24]. Specifically, information shared by SNSs’ friends comprises the details of possessions, success and some positively-skewed pictures of realities [25,26]. More friends, more exposure chances to the materialistic and idealized information, which prompts people to compare themselves with their online friends [3], and the upward comparison induces the desire for material and successful lives, i.e., materialism [23,27].

Therefore, this paper attempted to explore the impact of SNSs’ friends’ number on materialism by means of a survey of WeChat users and an experiment. The current research contributed to the literature in the following ways. First, prior studies discovered the positive outcomes of friends’ number such as trust and security [8]. We explored the dark side of SNSs’ friends and revealed that they were important source of social comparison that encouraged materialism. Besides, although recent literature started to examine the relationship between SNSs usage and some materialistic behaviors [27], it lacked to examine whether and how friends’ number would affect materialism. Thirdly, we identified specific personal characteristics that influence the relationship between friends’ number on materialism. Specifically, we claimed that social comparison orientation and self-esteem would help to predict who are more vulnerable to the negative psychological outcomes brought by friends’ number. Understanding why and when SNSs’ friends’ number lead to materialism is not only theoretically important, but also has practical implications for interpersonal relationship and value development in SNSs.

Theoretical background and hypotheses

The effect of number of SNSs’ friends on materialism

SNSs provide a convenient venue for social connection and information sharing among online friends [7]. Different from friends offline which require strong attachment or close connections, friends in SNSs refer to the weaker, online relationship concerning “the list of friends who establish relationship through SNSs, connected by sharing profiles, information and communication online” [7], even without face-to-face meeting.

Friends on social media have some unique properties compared to the traditional offline interactions. On the one hand, social media facilitate communications and interactions among networked friends [6]. More friends nowadays means more interactions and psychological support [8,9,11], which lead to positive outcomes including trust, happiness [9], sense of belonging and life satisfaction [11,12]. Kim and Lee found that the number of Facebook friends had a positive relationship with one’s subjective well-being [8]. On the other hand, users on social media establish relationships with weak ties and strong ties [6]. More friends in SNSs indicated more social capital [5,6], especially for ones in need of social support such as foreign students facing cross-cultural adaption [13]. Pang demonstrated that WeChat network size could positively influences bridging, bonding and social capital maintenance [12].

Besides, some studies explored the negative aspects of number of SNSs’ friends including unfavorable emotional consequences like SNSs’ fatigue [14–16], mental distress and loneliness [20]. For instance, Brandtzæg, Lüders, and Skjetne pointed out that users with many friends may be overwhelmed with the need to process too much information [14]. Pang explored the relationship between WeChat engagement on negative consequences like depression mood and fear of missing out [17]. Some recent findings extended from emotional to some materialistic behaviors by SNSs’ usage including impulsive buying [12,21,22] and conspicuous consumption [23]. So, it is interesting to figure out whether and how friends’ number would lead to material goal pursuits.

This paper argued that friends’ number would lead to high materialism. Materialism can be seen as an internal value concerning the extent to which they believe happiness comes from possessions and acquisitions are the central goal in life, and success in life is measured by material achievement [28]. Holt expressed a similar sentiment when he conceptualized materialism as “the consumption style that results when consumers perceive that value inheres in consumption objects rather than experiences and people” [29]. For one thing, the posted messages on SNSs usually comprise the details of people’s possessions [25] to express their identity [30]. More friends in SNSs increase the exposure chances to friends’ lives with details of their possessions [25], and continuously exposure to peers’ materialistic information would constitute a social influence that greatly change their personal value towards materialism [31,32]. For another, friends’ posted contents are mostly idealized and positively-skewed [26], which are more likely to induce upwards social comparison [33,34]. This would subsequently lead to negative self-evaluation [35] and fear of missing out in passive SNSs usage [17,36]. As a compensatory strategy towards the psychological threat, people would increase materialism [31,32,37], especially in the consumption domain. This is in line with previous finding that social comparison, especially among peers, contributed to people adopting materialistic values [22,38]. Although some research demonstrated the positive link between SNSs’ usage and materialism [27], there is no direct evidence to prove the relationship between SNSs friends’ number and materialism, Therefore, we proposed that:

H1: The more friends on SNSs, the greater materialism.

The mediating role of extrinsic goal

According to self-determined theory [39], extrinsic goals are characterized as an outward orientation driven by making good impressions on others, including good physical looks, public image (fame), and financial achievements. This is in line with Kasser and Ryan that aspirations for financial success, social recognition and appealing appearance were extrinsic goals typically engaged in as means to some other ends [40].

From displaying self-images to one’s possessions, friends’ posts provide a variety of external cues to activate the external goals [41,42]. For example, observing luxury brands activates the social status motive, one typical type of external goals to gain reputation and social recognition [43]. Attention to the appealing selfies enhances the goal of physical attractiveness [40] and moreover, exposure to information of possessions and wonderful life increases the aspiration for financial success [44]. The external cue activates people’s extrinsic goal to win favor from others in a way they appreciated. It changes their perceptions about what contributes to happiness and success in life and increases the desire for acquisition and possession of material objects (materialism by definition) [28].

On the other hand, the majority of information posted by friends is idealized and positively-skewed [26]. Browsing information from superior peers generates the feeling of relative depravation that one has fewer possessions and lower abilities than others [45]. This perception would be augmented in SNSs where upward comparison is prevalent [17,46]. When consumers experience the psychological threat from lacking something their peers own, they would turn to other outward rewards for compensatory. As a result, they increase the extrinsic goals to buffer the stressors in an aversive situation [47,48]. So, people with more friends exhibit higher extrinsic goals, stressing greater importance on extrinsic rewards like wealth and material possessions, which finally contributes to materialistic tendency [28].

H2: The effect of number of SNSs’ friends on materialism is mediated by the emphasis on extrinsic goal.

The moderating role of social comparison orientation

We further explored social comparison orientation and self-esteem as two important characteristics that may influence the detrimental effects of friends’ number on materialism. Social comparison orientation refers to individual differences in people’s tendency to compare themselves with others [49]. Individuals with high social comparison orientation base their self-evaluation on how others are doing, while individuals with low social comparison orientation focus more on themselves and are more resistant to outside influences [49]. Although it is a natural tendency for people to compare themselves with others in SNSs [35,46], people high in social comparison orientation are more susceptible to others’ positively-biased posts and are more likely to adopt values such as materialism.

This is because first, individuals with high social comparison orientation have high social comparison frequency in SNSs [35,50–53]. They rely on outside information to reduce uncertainty about the self [49], and are more sensitive and attentive to crucial materialistic information shared by friends [37]. Such materialistic information further enhances the endorsement of materialism value [54]. Similarly, Vogel et al. proved that higher social comparison orientation could predict more SNS usage and caused detrimental effects on Facebook [51]. Second, people with high social comparison orientation hold uncertain and unstable self-perception [49]. Continuously exposure to positively biased information induces the psychological threat such as identity threat, Facebook-related attachment anxiety [3], as well as negative perceptions of one’s own attractiveness and social competence [55]. To compensate for the psychological threat induced by friends’ posts, they would increase materialism to recover mental health [31,32,56,57]. For example, Ho and Ito found that young adults high in social comparison orientation experienced overspending with more engagement in SNSs [58]. On the contrary, Individuals with low social comparison orientation report less frequent social networking sites usage and upward social comparison [51]. They focus more on themselves, show stable self-concepts, and are more resistant to external influence [49]. Thus, the impact of friends’ number on materialism would be weakened for them.

Therefore, we hypothesized the following:

H3: Social comparison orientation moderates the effect of SNSs’ friends’ number on materialism: for consumers with high social comparison orientation, the number of friends is positively associated with the materialism; for consumers with low social comparison orientation, the positive impact of friends’ number on materialism is attenuated.

In addition, people high in social comparison orientation are chronically sensitive to what others think about them [49]. Greater concern about being socially evaluated on Facebook is manifested by excessive reassurance seeking, need for approval and attention seeking [3]. The pursuit of outward recognition and social approval for a better sense of self promotes the extrinsic goals [40,59], which subsequently leads to materialism [32]. Therefore, for people high in social comparison orientation, more SNSs’ friends, more exposure to others’ positive life, more tendency for them to promote extrinsic goals and materialistic behaviors like luxury consumption [44,56]. However, for people with low levels of social comparison orientation, they present clear self-identity [3], focus more on themselves [49], and thus are less influenced by friends’ number in SNSs. Thus, we proposed that:

H4: Social comparison orientation moderates the effect of SNSs friends’ number on materialism via extrinsic goal: for consumers with high social comparison orientation, the number of friends is positively associated with extrinsic goal, which subsequently results in high materialism; for consumers with low social comparison orientation, the positive impact of friends’ number on materialism via extrinsic goal is attenuated.

The moderating role of self-esteem

Self-esteem constitutes a perception or evaluation of self-worthiness [60]; that is, the extent to which an individual views the self as worthwhile and competent [61]. Individuals with high self-esteem are generally more optimistic and confident, and less likely to be influenced by environment [61,62]. On the contrary, those with low self-esteem have low confidence about self. As a result, they are more likely to seek external information such as social comparison for clear understanding about self [46].

In the context of SNSs, for people with high self-esteem, they are less likely to be influenced by friends’ number since they rely less on external information for self-evaluations [46]. It serves as a buffer against social comparison information posted by many friends that may be harmful to the overall well-being [63]. Similarly, prior studies reveal that self-esteem is negatively related with SNS usage and upward social comparison [35], which subsequently contributes to positive mental and behavioral outcomes [46,51]. As a result, high self-esteem protects users against detrimental effects of friends’ number on materialism. However, for individuals with low self-esteem, they exhibit higher need of comparison information on Facebook [35,46]. They are more susceptible to social comparison posts [35,64] and adapt materialistic value as a result of emotional compensation [65].

H5: Self-esteem moderates the effect of SNSs friends’ number on materialism: for consumers with low self-esteem, the number of friends is positively associated with materialism; for consumers with high self-esteem, the positive impact of friends’ number on materialism is attenuated.

In addition, according to the previous literature, people with high self-esteem tend to establish their self-worth in the internal contingencies, while those with low self-esteem establish their self-worth in the external contingencies such as appearance and approval from others [66]. On the one hand, a flow of materialistic information in SNSs constitutes a social influence to signal that seeking wealth and status are universal ways to gain social approval [31,32]. Because people with low self-esteem depend more on extrinsic social approval for self-recognition, more exposure to posts from friends enhances their extrinsic goals to seek social recognition [59], and thus results in materialism [32]. On the other hand, the activation of extrinsic goals motivates the materialistic behavior intended to construct and maintain self-identity [48]. People with low self-esteem tend to rely more on material goods when their extrinsic goals are promoted [59]. However, individuals with high self-esteem could demonstrate their personal worth and status by emphasizing their abilities or strengths, and they do not need to prove themselves through material wealth [28]. Therefore, we hypothesized that:

H6: Self-esteem moderates the mediating route of number of friends on materialism via extrinsic goal: for consumers with low self-esteem, the number of friends is positively associated with extrinsic goal, which subsequently results in high materialism; for consumers with high self-esteem, the positive impact of friends’ number on materialism via extrinsic goal is attenuated.

Based on the above theoretical foundations, we derived the theoretical framework for this research in Fig 1.

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Fig 1. Theoretical framework.

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Study 1

Participants and procedure

We chose WeChat as the target type of SNS in the current research because WeChat is the most representative SNS among Chinese users, and has been the main data source for studies about SNSs in China [10,11,64]. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University. Undergraduate students that registered in the participant pool in China were emailed with a recruitment message by WeChat, a widely used social media platform in China. They were directed to an online survey website by a hyperlink in October 2021. Each participant was informed of the online formal consent before they enrolled in the present study. The first page of the questionnaire addresses the purpose of this study, the authenticity, independence, confidentiality and integrity of all answers. After reading the online formal consent and instructions, they were informed to finish the measures, involving number of WeChat friends, materialism, external goal, and some demographic variables including gender and age.

Out of the 280 registrants who received the e-mail, 264 students completed the survey in exchange for $4 (response rate: 94.28%; female: 71.3%; male: 28.7%), age ranges from 18 to 27 years old (M_age = 20.7, SD = 1.90). On average, participants had about 225 friends on their WeChat accounts.

Measures

All the variables were assessed using measures that had been frequently applied and validated in existing research. We followed the translation and back-translation procedure to validate the translation quality. We pretested it among a small set of participants to make sure all items were easy to understand and without ambiguity.

Number of SNS’s friends was evaluated by asking participants how many friends in total they had in their WeChat on a 9-point scale (0 = 10 or less, 1 = 11–50, 2 = 51–100, 3 = 101–150, 4 = 151–200, 5 = 201–250, 6 = 251–300, 7 = 301–400, 8 = more than 400) [9].

Materialism was measured with 9-item Material Values Scale developed by Richins and Dawson [28]. Specifically, Material Values Scale consists of three dimensions: the centrality of acquisition to a person’s life (e.g., “Buying things gives me a lot of pleasure”), the believes that acquisition provides happiness (“I’d be happier if I could afford to buy more things”) and signifies success (e.g., “I admire people who own expensive homes, cars, and clothes.”). The Cronbach’s α of this measurement was 0.66.

Extrinsic goal was assessed using the aspiration index developed by Kasser and Ryan [40,67]. Specifically, participants rated the importance of different aspirations on 7-point scales (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). We measured extrinsic goal with 3 kinds of external aspirations including “You will be wealthy and materially successful (financial success)”, “You will be famous, well-known and admired (social recognition)” and “You will look attractive in terms of body, clothing and fashion (appealing appearance)” (α = 0.78).

Social Comparison Orientation was measured according to the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Scale developed by Gibbons and Buunk [49], which consisted of 11 items on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Sample questions included “I always pay a lot attention to how I do things compared with how others do things”, “If I want to find out how well I have done something, I compare what I have done with how others have done”, “I often compare how I am doing socially (e.g., social skills, popularity) with other people” (α = 0.85).

Self-esteem was evaluated with a 10-item scale developed by Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale [61]. Participants responded sample items including “I take a positive attitude towards myself”, “One the whole, I am satisfied with myself”, “I feel that I have a number of good qualities” (α = 0.89).

Data analysis

We first conducted a path analysis model with materialism as outcome, SNS friends’ number as the predictor in Mplus 8.0. Next, we included mediator and tested the indirect effect through extrinsic goal by a Monte Carlo simulation approach [68]. Additionally, we added social comparison orientation and self-esteem as moderators in the model, and conducted simple slope analyses to examine moderation effects. The Monte Carlo simulation approach was also used to estimate the moderated mediation effects of social comparison orientation and self-esteem.

Common Method Bias: As the data was collected using a self-report questionnaire and all variables are perceptual measures derived from respondents, common method bias (CMB) may be a concern. Both procedural and statistical remedies were used to control CMB as suggested by Podsakoff et al. [69]. Procedurally, participants were assured that they were anonymous and that there were no correct or incorrect answers. The statistical remedies included Harman’s one-factor test to assess the presence of CMB [69]. All the items of the study were entered into a principal component analysis. The results showed that the first factor contributed 18.26% of the variance and that there was no single factor in the factor structure. Therefore, CMB was unlikely to affect the results [69].

Results

Descriptive statistics.

The descriptive information of all variables was presented in Table 1, including means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations (see Table 1).

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Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables.

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Hypotheses testing

The effect of number of SNSs friends on materialism.

A regression model with materialism as the dependent variable, the number of friends as the independent variable was performed. The results showed a marginally significant effect of friends’ number on materialism (β = 0.10, t = 1.69, p = 0.09), which partially supported Hypothesis 1.

The mediating role of extrinsic goal.

To test the mediating role of extrinsic goal for the relationship between friends’ number and materialism, we performed a series of regressions [70]. Results showed a positive relationship between friends’ number on extrinsic goal (β = 0.21, t = 3.43, p < 0.05). Besides, materialism was positively associated with extrinsic goal (β = 0.57, t = 11.09, p < 0.001). When we controlled for extrinsic goal, the effect of friends’ number on materialism wasn’t significant anymore (β = -0.01, t = -0.27, p = 0.79), which suggested a full mediation effect.

To further verify the mediation effect, we conducted a mediation analysis using bootstrapping (Model 4, based on 5,000 samples [71]). Results demonstrated that extrinsic goal mediated the effect of friends’ number on materialism (Indirect effect = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.05]). Hence, hypothesis 2 was supported.

The moderating role of social comparison orientation.

Next, to test the moderating role of social comparison orientation on the relationship between friends’ number and materialism, we conducted a moderated mediation model. The results indicated a significant main effect of friends’ number (β = -0.64, t = -2.17, p < 0.05), a non-significant main effect of social comparison orientation (β = -0.22, t = -1.16, p = 0.25), and a significant interaction effect (β = 0.92, t = 2.39, p < 0.05), which meant that social comparison orientation served as a moderator to boost the positive impact of friends’ number on materialism. This moderating effect was further verified with bootstrapping (model 1, based on 5,000 samples [71] (Effect = 0.05, s.e. = 0.02, p < 0.05, 95% CI = [0.01,0.10]).

Furthermore, A simple slope analysis showed that the effects of friends’ number on materialism was stronger for people with high levels of social comparison orientation (Effect = 0.05, s.e. = 0.02, p < 0.05, 95% CI = [0.01,0.09]), compared to people with low levels of social comparison orientation (Effect = -0.02, s.e. = 0.02, p = 0.27, 95% CI = [-0.06,0.02]; Fig 2), which supported hypothesis 3.

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Fig 2. Simple slope analysis for social comparison orientation.

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In addition, there was a significant moderated mediation effect of social comparison orientation on the indirect route from friends’ number on materialism via extrinsic goal (Effect = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.05]). Specifically, for people with high social comparison orientation, extrinsic goal significantly mediated the relationship between friends’ number and materialism (Effect = -0.04, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.19, 0.07]; Fig 3). Conversely, for people with low social comparison orientation, the mediating effect of extrinsic goal between friends’ number and materialism was non-significant (Effect = 0.01, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [-0.02, 0.29]; Fig 3). The results suggested that for people high in social comparison orientation, more friends in SNS prompted them to seek extrinsic goal such as status and wealth, which therefore enhanced their materialism. In contrast, when people perceived low levels of social comparison orientation, interactions with SNSs friends would not significantly drive them to pursuit the extrinsic goal and change their materialistic tendency.

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Fig 3. Moderated mediation effect for social comparison orientation.

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The moderating role of self-esteem.

Similarly, we performed a moderated mediation model with friends’ number as independent variable, materialism as dependent variable, extrinsic goal as mediator, and self-esteem as the moderator variable. In support of H4, there was a significant main effect of friends’ number (β = 0.88, t = 2.77, p < 0.05), a non-significant main effect of self-esteem (β = 0.27, t = 1.53, p = 0.13), and a significant interaction effect (β = -0.92, t = -2.43, p < 0.05). The results showed that self-esteem weakened the effect of WeChat friends on materialism (β = -0.04, s.e. = 0.02, p < 0.05, 95% CI = [-0.07, -0.01]).

A simple slope analysis confirmed that the effects of friends’ number on materialism was stronger for people with low levels of self-esteem (β = 0.06, s.e. = 0.02, p < 0.05, 95% CI = [0.02,0.10]), compared to people with high levels of self-esteem (β = -0.01, s.e. = 0.02, p = 0.74, 95% CI = [-0.05,0.03]; Fig 4).

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Fig 4. Simple slope analysis for self-esteem.

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As hypothesized, there was significant moderated mediation effect of self-esteem on the indirect route from friends’ number on materialism via extrinsic goal (Effect = -0.02, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [-0.04, -0.01]). Specifically, for people with low levels of self-esteem, extrinsic goal significantly mediated the relationship between friends’ number and materialism (Effect = 0.05, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.08]; Fig 5). Conversely, for people with high levels of self-esteem, the mediating effect of extrinsic goal between friends’ number and materialism was non-significant (Effect = 0.004, s.e. = 0.01, 95% CI = [-0.02, 0.03]; Fig 5). The findings demonstrated that people with low levels of self-esteem were more vulnerable to the negative consequences by posts from WeChat friends, due to the fact of their increase motivation for extrinsic goal.

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Fig 5. Moderated mediation effect for self-esteem.

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Study 2

The objective of this study is to use a controlled experimental setting to dissect the relationship between friends’ number on materialism on a general SNS platform. We employed a 2 (number of SNS’s friends: high vs low) factorial between-subjects experimental design. Specifically, we designed the experiment from the recipients’ perspective since as users of the SNS, they know how they were affected by friends, and thus to ensure a positive inferences of materialism in terms of friends’ number.