A Study on the Impact of Personality Traits on Attitudes Towards Social Media Influencers

Abstract

Companies increasingly collaborate with social media influencers (SMIs) to promote product and service brands (Jin & Muqaddam, 2019). There has so far been limited research examining how the personality traits of consumers may impact the extent to which they are influenced by SMIs. This study aims to understand the relationship between consumers’ personality traits and their attitudes towards SMIs. The study utilised an online questionnaire distributed to a group of millennials (n=221), in order to understand the impact of personality traits on attitudes towards SMIs. The five-factor model of personality (McCrae & Costa, 1987), which employs the neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness labels, was used as a framework for the study, while the questions on attitudes towards SMIs explored four main areas - envy towards SMIs, advertising content value, credibility of SMIs, and perceived trustworthiness of SMIs. The findings highlight the importance of investigating personality traits to better understand how followers/consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards SMIs and SMI-endorsed advertisements can be influenced. The implications for further research and the study’s limitations are discussed.