Do You Care to Share? The Negative Effect of Sponsored Content on the Behavioral Engagement with a Social Media Post Containing a COVID-19 Message

Abstract

During the pandemic, social media influencers were facing the challenge of balancing financial interests while publishing relevant content about the virus. This article explores how consumers would react if sponsored content was included in a social media post about COVID-19. We hypothesized that including sponsored content in the COVID-19 post would negatively affect the influencer’s perceived credibility, resulting in more negative attitudes towards the post and lower behavioral engagement. A 2 (control vs. COVID-19 message) × 2 (control vs. sponsored content) online experimental study was conducted among 18–34-year-old respondents (N = 169, Mage = 24.3, SDage = 4.66, 82.1% female). Data were analyzed using a general linear model and a moderated serial mediation model. Results indicated that including sponsored content in the COVID-19 post led to lower perceived influencer credibility, which indirectly negatively influenced behavioral engagement through attitudes towards the post. Our results provide empirical evidence that including sponsored content in a COVID-19 post might reduce the dissemination potential of the post.