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

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.