Let me deinfluence you! The impacts of deinfluencing content

Abstract

Social media influencers strive to establish themselves as knowledgeable, desirable sources of information for consumers’ purchase decisions. However, the glut of sponsored product endorsements on social media fuels consumer skepticism and undermines influencer trustworthiness. Arguably, deinfluencing content—organic social media posts in which influencers discourage consumers from purchasing certain products—might help restore trust. Drawing on influencer marketing research, attribution theory, and persuasion knowledge, the authors derive a conceptual model to predict how deinfluencing content affects consumers, influencers, and brands. With a specific focus on short, vertical videos, a pilot study and four preregistered experiments involving 1,456 participants demonstrate that deinfluencing content enhances influencer trustworthiness by reducing skepticism about their motives, which thereby strengthens consumers’ purchase intentions toward subsequently endorsed products. However, the effectiveness of influencer recommendations diminishes if they appear in sponsored collaborations with brands whose products the influencers have previously discouraged. These findings offer theoretical insights into the evolving landscape of influencer communications and provide actionable implications for influencers seeking to build trust-based relationships with online audiences, as well as for brands considering collaborations with influencers who share deinfluencing content.