Preaching to the choir: Do green influencers make a difference?

Abstract

Green influencers are crucial in promoting sustainable lifestyles, but their impact may vary depending on their audience. Their behavioral effect might be limited if they were mainly “preaching to the choir” of like-minded green followers who likely already consume sustainably. The purpose of this research is to (1) investigate the communication practices of green influencers and their followers as an indicator of their green attitudes (and a potential influencer-follower attitude fit) and (2) understand the effect of consumer green attitudes on their response to green influencer messages. Field data reveal the high influencer-follower fit in green attitudes in that they mostly talk about green topics. Two experiments with real and fictional influencers show the negative implications of this attitude fit: the effect of green influencer posts on consumers’ usage intention is weaker when these consumers have similar green attitudes as the influencers (fit), whereas the effect is stronger when these posts reach a non-green audience (non-fit). This implies that green influencers should focus on reaching a non-green audience when promoting green consumption; alternatively, green behavioral intentions might increase through sustainable messages from non-green (e.g., beauty) influencers.