An exploratory study of the impact of perceived fake news on brand attachment: mediating role of brand trust and consumer-brand identification

Abstract

Fake news has created a nightmare for companies and brands. Fake news not only affects a brand’s reputation but also consumer behaviour. However, no scale is available to measure perceived fake news (PFN) in literature. Brand attachment (BA) is one of the important constructs in predicting consumer behaviour. This study aims to explore how PFN influences BA. The mediating role of consumer-brand identification (CBI) and brand trust (BT) have been studied in the relationship between PFN and BA. The results suggest that PFN has an impact on CBI and BA. However, it does not affect BT. Also, CBI partially mediates the relationship between PFN and BA while BT shows no mediation. This study contributes a three-item scale to measure perceived fake news. Brands can use brand attachment and brand trust as the mitigating strategy to reduce the harm of fake news.