Is being divisive good for business? For influencers, it might be. A study in the Journal of Business Research looked at polarizing influencers, the kind people either love or can’t stand. In one experiment, fans imagined their favorite influencer promoting a new product. The more polarizing fans considered that influencer, the more convincing they found the pitch, and the more likely they were to like, comment on, or share the post and to consider buying the product. Having haters seems to make fans rally harder, even when the post itself isn’t controversial. The researchers then analyzed 779 brand posts from 83 Instagram influencers. Posts from polarizing influencers earned about twice as many likes relative to follower count, and among influencers with a million or more followers, polarizing ones drew far more comments. So is that extra buzz coming from critics? Apparently not. In follow-up experiments, people who disliked an influencer engaged less with the post, and people who felt neutral didn’t respond any differently to polarizing influencers. The bottom line: the extra engagement comes from loyal fans, not the haters.

Source: Koorank Beheshti, M., Gopinath, M., Ashouri, S., & Zal, S. (2023). Does polarizing personality matter in influencer marketing? Evidence from Instagram. Journal of Business Research, 160, 113804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113804