From Live Streamer to Influencer: Credibility Effects of Authority, Interactivity, and Sponsorship

Live streaming platforms have enabled ordinary people to become sources of information online, with some of them attracting legions of viewers and commanding an audience that surpasses traditional media sources in size. What makes these live streamers achieve credibility? We examined three predictors: their expertise, their level of interaction with viewers, and sponsorship status. These were conceptualized with the aid of the Modality-Agency-Interactivity-Navigability (MAIN) Model as three distinct interface cues: authority, interactivity, and sponsorship. The persuasive effects of these cues on source credibility, purchasing intention, and subscribing intention were examined in two online experiments, with the first one being a pilot study focusing on the difference between levels of interactivity and the second one probing the combinatory effects of all three cues. Data indicate that a continuous, real-time flow of interaction most improves viewers’ perception of interactivity. Second, the streamer’s authority and sponsorship disclosure have the potential to mitigate or even reverse the positive effect of interactivity. In addition, mediation analyses reveal the psychological mechanisms by which each interface cue affects source credibility and purchasing intention, thereby enhancing our theoretical understanding of persuasion in live-streaming platforms.