Professional or Interpersonal Trust? Effect of Social Network on the Intention to Undergo Cosmetic Procedures

Chih-Cheng Lo,Yi-Wen Lin,Chun-Hsien Wang

doi:10.1177/21582440211040122

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the influence of friendship and medical advice networks on customers’ intention to undergo cosmetic procedures and its relationship to the role of professional and interpersonal trust in seeking cosmetic information. We propose that both interpersonal and professional trust play a mediating role in medical cosmetic information-seeking behaviors. In doing so, a purposive sampling of 289 customers from 21 cosmetic clinics was surveyed while all these customers received medical cosmetics treatment. The empirical analysis has shown that customers who are central to the friendship network have a high level of interpersonal trust, which positively mediates the relationship between friendship networks and their decisions to adopt cosmetic procedures. Our findings suggest that the understanding of friendship and advice networks enables us to explore the explicit details of how customers exchange information related to cosmetic surgery. Finally, our findings also made practical contributions, while the counseling service of medical clinic is required to take not only professional but also interpersonal trust into consideration.

Highlights

Cosmetic clinics have been regarded as one of the important sources of well-defined medical cosmetic advice before medical cosmetic therapeutic decision-making is everexpanding (Hotta, 2018; Willis, 2017)
As suggested by Wellman and Frank (2001) in their work on friendship networks, such a network is known to provide emotional support. These information sources of medical cosmetics greatly rely on the word of mouth of social networks, which is regarded as a means to understand the information-seeking behaviors in terms of cosmetic therapeutic decisions (Pan et al, 2017)
To assess the customers’ decisions to undergo cosmetic procedures during medical cosmetics treatment, the sources of medical cosmetic information do not occur in isolation from their social context

Summary

Introduction

Cosmetic clinics have been regarded as one of the important sources of well-defined medical cosmetic advice before medical cosmetic therapeutic decision-making is everexpanding (Hotta, 2018; Willis, 2017). Customers are likely to seek both experience-based and professional opinions to access reliable sources of cosmetic information before they undergo initial cosmetic surgery. This is because customers tend to obtain critical information sources and reduce the risk of cosmetic surgery in advance (Maisel et al, 2018). As suggested by Wellman and Frank (2001) in their work on friendship networks, such a network is known to provide emotional support These information sources of medical cosmetics greatly rely on the word of mouth of social networks, which is regarded as a means to understand the information-seeking behaviors in terms of cosmetic therapeutic decisions (Pan et al, 2017). The cosmetic therapeutic decision may be influenced by both friendship and advice networks

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Conclusion