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 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.