Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts
With the intensifying discourse on climate change and the unfolding climate crisis, more and more social media influencers are addressing sustainability. These “greenfluencers” combine entertainment and lifestyle content with environmental issues, exhibiting their climate activism on Instagram and o...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Studies in Communication, Media |
| Online Access: | https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/2192-4007-2025-2-268 |
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| author | Anna Schorn Lukas Hess Nadine Strauß |
| author_facet | Anna Schorn Lukas Hess Nadine Strauß |
| author_sort | Anna Schorn |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the intensifying discourse on climate change and the unfolding climate crisis, more and more social media influencers are addressing sustainability. These “greenfluencers” combine entertainment and lifestyle content with environmental issues, exhibiting their climate activism on Instagram and other platforms. Despite their growing influence, the factors contributing to greenfluencers’ credibility, authenticity, and associated persuasive effects remain unclear. This research investigated how exhibited activism and message-sidedness impact a greenfluencer’s authenticity, credibility, and persuasion when promoting sustainable products. We conducted two 2 (exhibited activism: public-sphere environmentalism vs. private-sphere activism) ✕ 2 (message-sidedness: one-sided vs. two-sided) between-subjects experiments. The stimulus material for each participant consisted of an Instagram profile and a post promoting a sustainable bank account. Our findings show that exhibiting public-sphere activism does not improve a greenfluencer’s authenticity, credibility, and persuasive effects, and a two-sided message only improves the attitude towards the bank, compared to a one-sided message, but not behavioural intentions, authenticity, or credibility. Our results have implications for greenfluencers combating the climate crisis as well as for corporate actors trying to advertise sustainable products with greenfluencers. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d1ec003a7a7148e08acb10cd5544f68d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2192-4007 |
| language | deu |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studies in Communication, Media |
| spelling | doaj-art-d1ec003a7a7148e08acb10cd5544f68d2025-08-20T03:29:44ZdeuNomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KGStudies in Communication, Media2192-40072025-06-0114226829110.5771/2192-4007-2025-2-2681057712192400720252268Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer postsAnna SchornLukas HessNadine StraußWith the intensifying discourse on climate change and the unfolding climate crisis, more and more social media influencers are addressing sustainability. These “greenfluencers” combine entertainment and lifestyle content with environmental issues, exhibiting their climate activism on Instagram and other platforms. Despite their growing influence, the factors contributing to greenfluencers’ credibility, authenticity, and associated persuasive effects remain unclear. This research investigated how exhibited activism and message-sidedness impact a greenfluencer’s authenticity, credibility, and persuasion when promoting sustainable products. We conducted two 2 (exhibited activism: public-sphere environmentalism vs. private-sphere activism) ✕ 2 (message-sidedness: one-sided vs. two-sided) between-subjects experiments. The stimulus material for each participant consisted of an Instagram profile and a post promoting a sustainable bank account. Our findings show that exhibiting public-sphere activism does not improve a greenfluencer’s authenticity, credibility, and persuasive effects, and a two-sided message only improves the attitude towards the bank, compared to a one-sided message, but not behavioural intentions, authenticity, or credibility. Our results have implications for greenfluencers combating the climate crisis as well as for corporate actors trying to advertise sustainable products with greenfluencers.https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/2192-4007-2025-2-268 |
| spellingShingle | Anna Schorn Lukas Hess Nadine Strauß Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts Studies in Communication, Media |
| title | Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts |
| title_full | Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts |
| title_fullStr | Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts |
| title_short | Influencers going green: How exhibited climate activism and message-sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts |
| title_sort | influencers going green how exhibited climate activism and message sidedness affect the impact of greenfluencer posts |
| url | https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/2192-4007-2025-2-268 |
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