Credible Influencers

Abstract

Abstract. Influencers are semi-professional microcelebrities on social media platforms such as YouTube, often sponsored by brands to promote lifestyle products to followers. Influencers navigate opposing tensions of their authenticity and relatability with their carefully crafted personas and commercial interests. We draw from warranting theory to propose that influencer trustworthiness and expertise would be differentially affected by several key message cues: production modification, self-disclosure, and sponsorship disclosure. A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with original influencer videos tested effects on trustworthiness and expertise, as well as downstream effects on attitudes and intentions. Video modification had a positive effect on expertise, but no effect on trustworthiness. Self-disclosure had a surprisingly negative effect on trustworthiness. Sponsorship disclosure only had an effect on perceived sponsorship. However, modification and sponsorship disclosure interacted, so that modification boosted both expertise and trust when videos were unsponsored. Finally, expertise mediated effects of modification on attitudes, and trustworthiness mediated effects of self-disclosure. Findings illustrate distinct roles for expertise, trustworthiness, and sponsorship perceptions in the influencer context.