Abstract:

The growing use of virtual influencers in sustainability communication raises a fundamental tension: how can messages grounded in moral responsibility remain credible when delivered by artificial, non-human sources? This study addresses this issue by examining how message effectiveness depends on the interplay between source transparency and message framing. Focusing on psychological distance, the study distinguishes between messages that emphasise immediate, local actions and those that highlight global, long-term outcomes, and examines how these framings interact with the disclosure of a virtual influencer’s artificial origin to shape message acceptance. It further incorporates environmental moral identity to account for individual differences in how sustainability messages are evaluated. Adopting an experimental approach, the paper first reviews literature on virtual influencer disclosure, psychological distance, and moral identity to develop the hypotheses, and subsequently outlines the proposed research design to test the hypotheses.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Marketing and Retail

Keywords: Sustainability;Consumer behaviour and psychology;Marketing communications;Marketing strategy;Sustainability

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Dr. Nkululeko Fuyane