Delight My Brain and My Eyes: Credibility and Aesthetic Judgements of Endorsers

Attractiveness is considered a component of source credibility and contributes to persuasion success, but exactly how attractiveness relates to credibility and opinion change is still unclear. Therefore, this study investigates two mechanisms through which perceived endorser attractiveness affects advertising success (product attractiveness and electronic word-of-mouth). One mechanism includes perceived expertise and credibility; the other mechanism contains aesthetic appeal. Two experiments test the effects of social media endorser attractiveness and expertise for three product categories (health, beauty, and technology). We find that (a) although attractiveness can have a positive direct effect on credibility, the effect is largely explained by an increase in expertise. Moreover, (b) the effect of attractiveness on credibility is contingent on which product type is endorsed. Additionally, we show that (c) – next to source credibility – aesthetic appeal is an important mechanism through which attractiveness influences persuasion success. In brief, endorser attractiveness leads to persuasion success through two mechanisms (expertise and credibility versus aesthetic appeal).