How moral brand transgressions impact perceptions of social media message credibility
研究发现，当品牌违规涉及道德问题时，消费者在社交媒体上看到这类新闻会觉得更可信，从而引发更强的愤怒和报复欲；而非道德违规在社交媒体上的可信度则低于在线新闻。
• Moral relevance of brand transgression news affects perceived credibility. • Non-moral brand transgressions are less credible on social media (vs. online news) • Moral brand transgressions are equally credible on social media (vs. online news) • News of moral (vs. non-moral) brand transgressions is more credible on social media. • Previous estimates of social media credibility may be underestimated. Although consumers report a lack of trust in social media as a credible channel for news (i.e., the social media credibility gap), brands are still negatively affected by outrage stemming from information shared over social media. We demonstrate that this paradox can be explained by biased credibility perceptions that arise after learning about moral brand transgressions over this low-credibility channel. Specifically, across three studies (and two replications), we show that learning about a moral brand transgression over social media mitigates the prevalent tendency to view information conveyed over social media as less credible. For a moral brand transgression, this credibility gap is mitigated due to heightened credibility perceptions, fostering higher outrage and a greater desire for revenge than for a non-moral transgression. In contrast, for a non-moral brand transgression, this credibility gap holds, as content received via social media is perceived as less credible than content from online news media.