Social media influencers are sometimes called ‘microcelebrities,’ although that term may be a misnomer, as some reach many thousands, if not millions, of people. As influencers can reach those numbers, they can be highly effective advertisers. Improvements in the availability and price of technology extend the reach of influencers, and firms paying influencers for their endorsements can sell more. According to an economic analysis, the ‘influencer economy’ increased from $2 billion in 2020 to $13.8 billion in 2021, with nearly 50 million people engaged as influencers1. Those figures were derived during the COVID pandemic, but there is little reason to assume that this market will decline and little reason to assume that this is not a major feature of some societies.

The growth of potential social media impact on choice behaviours provokes questions like: Why is this influence so effective? Is it dangerous to society? The answers to both questions are not comfortable, but no more uncomfortable than answers given about any form of marketing tool over the last couple of centuries. Digital influencers are just another example of social influence, and patterns of social influence in the real and digital worlds are similar. However, consideration of neuroscience findings suggests that understanding dopamine's roles in social decision-making may illuminate the core of these concerns.

The effectiveness of social media influencers pivots around the ubiquity of digital media and the relative esteem in which opinion-formers from digital and other domains are held. Of course, these issues have always needed consideration when people wish to sell something. When people used to want to open real shops, they discussed ‘footfall’ (numbers of passers-by). If lots of wildebeest go to a watering hole, that’s where the lions and crocodiles will be. It also turns out that younger people often trust social media influencers more than other purveyors of products or ideas2. Credibility is important when judging sources of information on social media3, but this is nothing different from the real world. If social media influencers are now thought to be more credible, then influencers in the real world, like politicians and salespeople, will just have to ‘up their game.’ The successful lion or crocodile often lies well-hidden until the point of attack, and the rest just starve.

Metaphors about predation in the wild suggest possibilities of destructiveness, and such concern has prompted discussion of the........

© Psychology Today