Happy Young Female Designer Working With Photographs On Multiple Computer At Workplace
The word “influencer,” for many of us, conjures a certain image: a thin, beautiful woman living her glamorous, best life, which plays out in front of more than a billion active Instagram accounts. Like the supermodels of the 90s and reality TV stars of the 00s before her, today’s influencer represents the “thin ideal” that millions of young women look up to. And, with millennials and Gen Z representing more than $1.5 trillion in spending power – which will only increase as Gen Z comes of age – marketers have sought to capitalize on this idealization.
Conventional wisdom has long held that the most successful influencers for marketers – those that drive the most purchase intention – would be those representing the “thin ideal.” In our recent research, my colleagues and I set out to determine if that was correct.
Our hypothesis? Conventional wisdom was wrong.
Studies have historically found physically attractive models in advertisements to be more persuasive and likeable than less attractive models with attractiveness often driving product preference as well as purchase intention.
However, along with the rise of the “thin ideal” influencer came increasing scrutiny on the impact their portrayal has on women. The average woman is now overweight, with a dress size larger than 14. Research has shown that exposure to the “thin ideal” in the media does, indeed, lead to negative effects such as thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, and eating disorders, among other issues.
Full length of different size women in bikinis dancing together over brown background. Multi-ethnic ... [+]
To combat the negative impact the “thin ideal” has on consumers, body-positive activists began speaking out. As their popularity grew, they themselves became influencers. Unlike “thin ideal” influencers, who earned followers through self-promotion, these “body-positive” influencers encouraged their followers to use hashtags such as #bodypositivity and #bopo en masse on Instagram utilizing images, quotes and captions to support the acceptance of all body types and sizes.
These two influencer approaches to posting can be classified as “extrinsic” (posting for self-promotion and personal gain) and “intrinsic” (posting for altruistic reasons). Research has found that in an extrinsic motivation scenario, consumers may assume that influencers are working toward enhancing their own image, while in an intrinsic motivation scenario, consumers may believe that influencers are genuinely concerned for the welfare of their followers. The same research found that extrinsically driven behaviors (i.e. egocentric) affect purchase intention negatively as compared to intrinsic.
Person sitting at home and looking at someone's photo gallery shared on social media.
Our hypotheses?
1. Using the hashtag “#sizezero” in an influencer post increases perceived attractiveness vs. the hashtag “#size14”…
BUT
2. … Using the hashtag “#size14” in an influencer post increases purchase intentions vs. the hashtag “#sizezero.”
Across the two studies with my coauthors, Professor Charles R. Taylor and Mivena Panteqi, more than 400 female participants with an average age in the mid-thirties were recruited to test our hypotheses. We visually manipulated the size of the influencer, shown in the picture selling a swimsuit, to reflect two sets of visual stimuli (small vs. large), and matched the small condition with #sizezero and the large condition with #size14 in the post’s description. The effects of body mass index (BMI) was controlled for possible confounds.
Our results?
We found that while participants perceive the size 0 influencer to be more attractive and perfect than the influencer in size 14, their intention to purchase the swimsuit is higher for the size 14 influencer. This is consistent with the “thin ideal” that finds smaller models are still seen more favorably in terms of aspirational level of attractiveness.
However, the key finding in our research is that favorable “thin ideal” perceptions don’t necessarily drive purchase intentions. We find that consumers perceive smaller, thin ideal influencers appealing to extrinsic motivations (e.g., stand out from the crowd) to be more favorable. Conversely, a post of larger, “body-positive” influencers appealing to intrinsic motivations (e.g., embrace your true self) is found to be more effective. The reason is partly due to consumers’ expectations of influencers and the extent to which the influencers are expected to be perfect.
As marketers continue to explore ways to drive the highest return on investment, this research provides helpful insight into how they can best use Instagram’s growing influencer population to reach their core audiences and drive purchase intention among them. While consumers still find “perfect” influencers to be more physically attractive, in reality, these influencers may seem too good to be true. If your influencer is driving a lot of traffic to your website but no conversion, check which motivation story you are telling in your message.
