Journal of Interactive Advertising (2026) — TikTok deinfluencing and young adults

Summary:

Journal of Interactive Advertising is an academic publication; the study itself was conducted by researchers at the University of Vienna and KU Leuven, with no product or service being sold.

Influencers on TikTok are increasingly posting "deinfluencing" content — telling followers not to buy something. This experiment tested what that actually does to people's attitudes toward the brand, their intent to buy, and how they see the influencer.

210 people aged 18–30 were split into three groups. One saw an influencer post a positive review of a (fake) sunscreen, one saw a negative review of the same product, and a control group saw no review at all. Researchers then measured brand image, purchase intent, and how helpful and trustworthy the influencer seemed.

Key findings:
• Neither review moved brand image or purchase intent. A single negative review didn't hurt the brand, and a single positive review didn't help it — both groups looked statistically the same as the control.
• The negative review was rated more helpful. People found the "don't buy this" video meaningfully more useful than the positive one (medium-sized effect).
• The influencer looked more trustworthy after the negative review. Posting critical content boosted perceived trustworthiness compared to posting a standard endorsement.
• Trust wasn't about perceived good intentions. People didn't rate the critical influencer as more helpful because they assumed better motives — expertise and information quality were rated the same across both conditions.

Margin notes:
The sample skewed young, mostly female, and was recruited via snowball sampling rather than random selection, so results may not generalize. Both the influencer and the product were fictional and shown only once, so a single controlled exposure may understate or overstate what happens with real, repeated content.