Influencer culture and ethical reflection: Moral legitimacy, ethical sensitivity and digital self-performance in adolescence

The influence of digital figures carries important ethical implications for adolescent identity construction. This study examines how adolescents’ perceptions of influencers’ moral legitimacy relate both to their ethical sensitivity in digitally mediated dilemmas and to their engagement in influencer-inspired digital self-performance practices. Using data from a representative sample of 1,089 Spanish adolescents aged 12–17, a mediation model was estimated to investigate the ethical processes underlying digital influence. The findings indicate that perceiving influencers as morally trustworthy strengthens adolescents’ inclination to adopt stylistic and interactional patterns inspired by them, while simultaneously predicting higher levels of ethical sensitivity in morally charged digital situations. Ethical sensitivity, in turn, functions as a regulatory mechanism that constrains uncritical imitation. Taken together, the results reveal the coexistence of moral trust and ethical reflection in adolescents’ digital participation, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of youth moral agency in contemporary online environments.