“Don’t buy it!” Influencers' negative product reviews and their effects on young adults

On TikTok, ‘deinfluencing’ videos have recently been trending, in which social media influencers (SMIs)—described as regular people who become well-known online figures—advise against buying specific products. However, the effects of this content on young people’s brand- and SMI-related attitudes have so far remained underexplored. Drawing from negativity bias and attribution theory, we addressed this gap in a pre-registered between-subjects experiment among young adults in Vietnam. Although we found no differences in brand image or purchase intentions across the groups, the negative product review was considered significantly more helpful than the positive one. Additionally, perceived trustworthiness of the SMI varied as a function of review valence.