As social media influencers increasingly shape sustainable consumption, understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer responses is essential. Drawing on social influence theory and reactance theory, this study examines how influencer characteristics affect sustainable behavioral intentions through perceived pressure and consumer reactance, while considering the moderating role of green self-identity. Using survey data from 382 respondents, the proposed model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Given the cross-sectional research design and the reliance on self-reported data, the findings should be interpreted as associational rather than strictly causal. The results show that influencer expertise, homophily, and social influence significantly increase perceived pressure. Perceived pressure, in turn, positively influences consumer reactance, which negatively affects sustainable purchase intention and positively affects avoidance intention. In addition, green self-identity significantly moderates the relationship between perceived pressure and reactance, such that consumers with a stronger green self-identity exhibit heightened sensitivity to perceived pressure and experience stronger reactance responses, indicating heightened sensitivity among environmentally self-identified consumers. These findings extend existing sustainability and influencer marketing research by revealing the dual and potentially counterproductive effects of persuasive communication. The study highlights the importance of autonomy-supportive and identity-consistent messaging for promoting sustainable consumption and provides practical guidance for designing effective influencer-based sustainability strategies.
Ma et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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