You Are So Much Like Me—You Just Have to Tell the Truth: Impact of User-Influencer Similarity on Parasocial Interactions in the Perception of Diversity Washing in Advertising

Abstract

Companies seek to demonstrate their commitment to social issues such as cultural diversity through their advertising. When a company engages in advertising that suggests a corporate commitment to cultural diversity but does not actually implement it, this is known as diversity washing. We investigate when individuals perceive this type of woke washing in a social media influencer (SMI) context and what role user-influencer similarity and parasocial interactions (PSIs) play. Our results show that, in agreement with the literature, vague claims compared to concrete claims increase the perception of diversity washing, which negatively affects brand perception and purchase intention. We were able to confirm that users’ perceived similarity to the SMI can predict PSIs. Contrary to our expectation, stronger PSI with the SMI lead to a stronger perception of diversity washing in a vague claim.