The Differential Effects of Celebrity and Expert Endorsements on Consumer Risk Perceptions. The Role of Consumer Knowledge, Perceived Congruency, and Product Technology Orientation

This paper examines the differential effects of celebrity and expert endorsements on consumer risk perceptions via three studies. Using source model theories, it is hypothesized that for high technology-oriented products there will be stronger effects of expert endorsers than celebrity endorsers in reducing consumer risk perceptions. In addition, for high technology-oriented products, there is likely to be an interaction effect between endorser type and consumer knowledge on respondents' risk perceptions. Such an interaction effect is likely to be absent for products with a low technology orientation. These hypotheses are supported by the first two studies. The third study examines the underlying theoretical processes of internalization versus identification and shows that the stronger effects of expert (versus celebrity) endorsers for high technology-oriented products is somewhat neutralized for certain types of perceived risks when there is high congruency between the celebrity endorser and the product.