Under the influence of (alcohol)influencers? A qualitative study examining Belgian adolescents’ evaluations of alcohol-related Instagram images from influencers

ABSTRACT Influencers are important socialization agents among adolescents. There are rising concerns that influencers glamorize their alcohol behaviors and promote brands on Instagram. While exposure to alcohol messages influences adolescents’ alcohol use, it remains unclear how adolescents evaluate influencers’ alcohol images. We conducted 10 focus group interviews with 47 adolescents (Mage = 16.21; SD = 1.22). Our results demonstrated that adolescents frequently encounter images of influencers who hold alcoholic beverages, provide positive reviews for brands, or promote their own beverages. Additionally, building on the Message Interpretation Process model, we examined how individuals affectively (i.e. message desirability) and cognitively (i.e. realism, similarity) evaluate these alcohol images. Our results suggest that adolescents enjoy viewing images of influencers who depicted positive alcohol-related outcomes, highlighted their luxurious lifestyles, and were transparent about their partnership with alcohol brands. Only upon explicitly encouraging them to think aloud about the realism of and similarity to these images; and through discussions with their friends, they became more skeptical and perceived influencers’ images to be inauthentic. Where these critical evaluations took place, the persuasive effects seemed to diminish. Overall, our findings suggest that peer-led discussions and think-aloud procedures may be promising tools for media literacy interventions. IMPACT SUMMARY Prior state of knowledge Influencers use Instagram to memorialize alcohol drinking and recommend brands to adolescents. Exposure to alcohol images, however, has been demonstrated to influence offline alcohol cognitions and behaviors. Novel contributions Extending the Message Interpretation Process model, our qualitative study indicated that stylistic features and emotional appeals in influencers’ alcohol images drive affective evaluations, while the valence, setting, and commercial transparency determine cognitive evaluations. Critical cognitive evaluations overturn positive affective evaluations. Practical Implications The study showed that peer-led discussions and think-aloud procedures may be useful tools in media literacy trainings to activate adolescents’ critical cognitive evaluations. These cognitive evaluations would in turn enable adolescents to regulate their affective evaluations.