Reducing Resistance: The Impact of Nonfollowers’ and Followers’ Parasocial Relationships with Social Media Influencers on Persuasive Resistance and Advertising Effectiveness

Abstract

Although social media influencers have become popular brand endorsers, previous research on this new form of advertising has neglected to analyze how the followers of these influencers are persuaded. Based on a key mechanism proposed by the entertainment overcoming resistance model, long-term parasocial relationships (PSRs) should reduce the amount of persuasive resistance in the forms of reactance and counterarguing. Consequently, the persuasive effects should be enhanced. To empirically test these assumptions, two online studies were conducted. The first experimental study (N = 151) confirmed that followers experienced stronger PSRs than did nonfollowers, which resulted in higher perceived source trustworthiness and reduced levels of both perceived freedom threat and counterarguing after exposure to a sponsored Instagram post. The second study (N = 225) further confirmed the enhanced persuasive impact of PSRs in terms of brand evaluations and behavioral intentions. The theoretical and practical implications for advertisers, consumer advocates, and future research are discussed.

How Parasocial Relationship and Influencer-Product Congruence Shape Audience’s Attitude Towards Product Placement in Online Videos: The Mediation Role of Reactance

“…Hence, as mentioned earlier, when individuals perceived a closer PSR with the influencer, they reported a lower level of reactance probably because they interpreted the influencer’s recommendation as genuine suggestions. Besides, Breves, Liebers, et al 50 argued that PSR with social media influencers were usually derived from repeated user interactions. These interactions may cause a positive schema of the influencer such as being trustworthy.…”

Why context matters in a changing social media environment: The role of placement prominence as a moderator of disclosure effects in sponsored influencer content

“…As outlined above, we further hypothesize that reactance is negatively linked to evaluations of both the promoted brand and the source of the persuasion attempt (Breves et al, 2021;Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010;van Reijmersdal et al, 2016; Figure 1). H3: Higher levels of reactance have a negative effect on recipients' attitudes toward the promoted brand.…”

“…In influencer communication, source credibility (i. e., influencer credibility) is a key factor in the influencer-follower relationship as well as for the persuasive effectiveness of influencer messages (e. g., Lou & Yuan, 2019). Accordingly, messages from influencers who are considered trustworthy and credible (e. g., as a result of a long-lasting parasocial relationship) trigger less reactance (Breves, Liebers, Motschenbacher, & Reus, 2021). Vice versa, this suggests that messages that evoke reactance (e. g., by highlighting their persuasive intent) could negatively affect influencer credibility.…”

Influencers’ Promoted Posts and Stories On Instagram: Do They Matter?

“…Instagram provides several formats in which to publish content, including posts, which are permanent content posted to the profile of the poster; and stories, which consist of temporary content (that disappears within 24 hours). To the best of our knowledge, few studies to date have analyzed the effect of stories on consumers' behavior, including the impact of stories created by influencers (Breves et al, 2021). Therefore, the present study analyzes the effect of influencers' publications in different formats (posts vs. stories) on consumers, as well as the effect of promoted content.…”

“…The effect of promoted publications on consumers could be less than that of non-promoted publications (Boerman, 2020). However, revealing that a post is promoted could be seen as a sign of an influencer's authenticity, leading to more positive attitudes toward the promoted post (Breves et al, 2021). Thus, the effect of promoted posts should be examined more closely to provide clearer indications thereon (Breves et al, 2021).…”