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1. Introduction
Veganism is “a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose” (Bedin et al., 2018, p. 1). Social media is a major driver of the vegan lifestyle, which partially accounts for the prevalence of veganism among millennials who gravitate toward social media (Meager, 2016). As of December 2019, more than 95 million Instagram posts have been hashtagged with #vegan or #veganism, according to Instagram statistics (Instagram, 2019). In light of the prevalence of veganism among millennials and influx of #vegan posts on Instagram, and drawing on tenets of the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), source credibility model (McCroskey and Teven, 1999), and the match-up hypothesis (Kahle and Homer, 1985), the current study examined the effects of Instagram profile sources (Experiment 1: brand vs nonprofit; Experiment 2: celebrity vs noncelebrity) and message types (Experiment 1: egoistic vs altruistic; Experiment 2: positively valenced vs negatively valenced) on consumers' attitude toward pro-veganism advertising on Instagram. Specifically, Experiment 1 examined the joint effects of organization type (brand vs nonprofit organization) and message type (egoistic vs altruistic) of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages on (a) perceived information value, (b) attitude toward the organization, and (c) perceived credibility of the organization. Experiment 2, meanwhile, examined the joint effects of individual endorser type (celebrity vs noncelebrity influencer) and message valence (positive vs negative) of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages on (1) a) perceived information value, (b) electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention, and (c) behavioral intention toward veganism. Together, the two experiments offer a more complete overview of pro-veganism messages on Instagram and their effects on consumers' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward veganism.
2. Experiment 1: effects of organization (brand vs nonprofit) and message types (egoistic vs altruistic)
2.1 Theoretical frameworks and hypotheses
2.1.1 Pro-veganism sources on Instagram
Source credibility refers to the perceived trustworthiness, expertise, and goodwill of a particular message source (McCroskey and Teven, 1999). When consumers perceive a source to have greater credibility, they are also more likely to be persuaded by messages from the source (McCracken, 1989). In previous studies, greater source credibility was found to significantly increase consumers' positive brand perceptions and identification (e.g. Jin and Phua, 2014;...