When Consumers Smell a Sell in Personal Stories: How Influencer Narratives Backfire and the Role of Sponsorship Disclosures

The rapid growth of social media has prompted many corporations to collaborate with social media influencers (SMIs) to create sponsored personal stories to engage their consumers. While the positive effects of narrative transportation have been examined in the SMI context, its potential backfire effects are rarely explored. Through two online experiments, Study 1 (N = 161) found that narratives (vs. non-narratives) resulted in less positive ad responses, with these effects fully mediated by perceived manipulative intent. Study 2 (N = 257) replicated these findings and further revealed that sponsorship disclosure moderated these effects: disclosure exacerbates the backfire effects of narratives by heightening perceived manipulative intent, whereas in non-narrative ads, it enhances ad effects by reducing consumers’ inference of manipulative intent.