Disclosing the undisclosed: Social media endorsements in an unregulated context

Abstract

This study examined how influencer endorsement disclosure affects conceptual and attitudinal persuasion knowledge, and, in turn, influencer credibility, purchase intention, and sharing intention, in Kuwait, an unregulated social media market. In a between-subjects experiment, 968 university students who use Snapchat were randomly assigned to a disclosure or non-disclosure condition. Disclosure did not significantly increase conceptual persuasion knowledge, and, as literally specified, none of the five hypotheses (H1–H5) was supported. Disclosure did, however, raise attitudinal persuasion knowledge (a more negative evaluation of the content), which in turn lowered influencer credibility, purchase intention, and sharing intention. In this commercially saturated environment, where audiences already recognize influencer content as persuasive, disclosure appears to operate through evaluation rather than through increased recognition of persuasive intent. The study extends persuasion-knowledge research to an unregulated market and offers a preliminary basis for future work.