Why You Trust Your Favorite Influencer
The Science Behind Online Recommendations
Today’s episode is a special one. It’s a cross-collaboration with Beyond the Degree, the podcast from Haile Graduate Programs — so if you like hearing how executives and researchers actually make decisions, that show belongs in your feed too. Make sure to subscribe to their newsletter.
On the Pod
My guest is Dr. Jose Saavedra Torres, my next-door neighbor at Haile College of Business and one of my closest collaborators on campus. Dr. Saavedra is an Associate Professor of Sales at Northern Kentucky University’s Haile College of Business. His research examines why we trust the people who sell to us online. Every time you buy something because someone on your phone told you to, you’re making an economic decision without realizing it.
Listen in to the conversation to learn more about parasocial relationships, trust, credibility, and authenticity. If you are building a relationship with your customers online, which you should, this episode is for you.
Credibility Is Not Authenticity
Here’s the distinction Dr. Saavedra kept coming back to, and it’s the one most people get wrong. Credibility is about knowledge — can I trust this person’s expertise? Authenticity is about honesty — is this person being true to their own values?
Those two things sound similar. They’re not. Marketers have been optimizing for credibility for years. Jose’s research says authenticity is the bigger lever and one that many companies miss.
The Parasocial Relationship Is Doing the Work
The reason authenticity moves people is something called a parasocial relationship — a one-sided bond where you feel like you know someone who has no idea you exist. Jose put it well: Cristiano Ronaldo has 900 million followers who feel like his buddies. He doesn’t know a single one of them. If you are on socials, I am sure there is at least one person or account you just thought of— we all have those connections.
This parasocial relationship changes the actual mechanics of a purchase. Normally, you search, compare, and then decide. When an influencer you trust recommends something, you skip straight to the decision — your brain already did the research for you, because it thinks that person is your friend. I’ve done this myself. I’ve bought books from a single video, no research, because I trusted the person recommending it. Sometimes it’s great. Sometimes it’s a total miss for my taste. That’s the trade-off of buying on trust instead of evidence.
Consistency Is What Keeps It Real
Jose’s advice for anyone building an audience or any brand hiring one: authenticity lives or dies on consistency. Pick almost any big influencer — Mr. Beast is his go-to example. If Mr. Beast showed up tomorrow promoting anti-aging skincare, you’d feel the mismatch immediately. There’s no story connecting who he is to what he’s selling, and that gap is exactly what triggers skepticism.
The Research Behind It
This isn’t just a hunch Jose has from watching his daughters trust an influencer he was skeptical of — though that’s literally how the research started. It’s now a peer-reviewed finding. Jose and his co-authors surveyed 504 consumers and found that influencer authenticity significantly predicts both brand engagement and parasocial relationships, and that the fit between an influencer and the product they’re pushing measurably strengthens that effect.
Banerjee, N., Rawal, M., Saavedra Torres, J. L., & Bagherzadeh, R. (2025). Beyond the Facade: Exploring the Authenticity of Social Media Influencers and Its Influence on Consumer Brand Engagement and Advocacy. Journal of Promotion Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2025.2571948
Dr. A’s Take
I think we’ve been asking the wrong question about influencer marketing. Everyone wants to know if an influencer is credible. The better question is whether they’re authentic — because credibility gets you a sale; authenticity gets you a customer for life. Brands chasing follower counts are optimizing for reach and not connection.
Key Takeaways
Credibility vs. authenticity: credibility is expertise; authenticity is honesty — they’re not the same thing, and authenticity is the stronger driver of trust.
Parasocial relationships change the decision process: consumers skip the research phase entirely when they trust the person recommending the product.
Consistency protects authenticity: the moment an influencer’s endorsement doesn’t match who they are, skepticism kicks in.
The data backs it up: read the full study — Beyond the Facade: Exploring the Authenticity of Social Media Influencers, Journal of Promotion Management (2025).
Listen to the full conversation in this collaboration between Decode Econ and Beyond the Degree — Haile Graduate Programs.
Watch Now
Timestamps
2:47 – What influencer marketing actually is
5:05 – Credibility vs. authenticity
9:49 – Advertising vs. influence (Trevor Noah example)
12:17 – Parasocial relationships explained
17:05 – What’s the Haile Research Lab?
24:03 – Marketing vs. sales, defined
26:29 – Why everyone should learn to sell
35:52 – Jose's next project
38:10 – Career advice: build value, not just credentials
What’s authenticity vs credibility?
Influencers warp a person's expectation biases by offering a consistent message triggering a type of compliance. It's social signaling.
If the influencer is transparent about their association with a product/person it increases their credibilty and lowers any risk aversion the audience may feel. The choice is simplified because a "authority" offers what is usually not a subjective opinion.
Beats headphones is a great example of a middle ground product that has an over-sized reach based on the perception of their quality since "famous person" wears them.
Kylie Jenners makeup? Bargain bin stuff they slap a new wrapper on and charge Lauder pricing.
Credibility economically is seen as Bayesian updating (rational) but it's more akin to a belief updating system (irrational).