Briana Anderson - Cornell University

ut the study did not use a measure that was similar enough to classic Involvement
studies to make the predictions in H3. 11 The study did measure what it intended to
measure (personal closeness), but was incorrect in the assumption that this form of
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involvement would act similarly to applied cognitive involvement advertising research
studies. Rather, the results indicate that those who are more personally involved in an
issue will more critically evaluate those with an attractive appearance in the case of a
corporate social responsibility issue.
Although there are several limitations of this study, the results provide insight
that has both theoretical and practical implications.
Discussion and Implications
The findings in this study present several interesting findings with both
practical and theoretical implications. First, in a practical sense, there is a positive
relationship between endorser credibility and company credibility. Thus, the results of
this study support H1. This is an important discovery as research has typically
revolved around endorser credibility and organizational credibility separately, not the
relationship between the two (as discussed on page 1). These results also indicate that
a ‘halo effect’ occurs where people make judgments about a person’s credibility
(endorser) and that those judgments carry over onto judgments of the sponsoring
organization. The challenge lies in determining what factors create the highest
amount of endorser credibility.
Second, attractiveness may not behave as expected in endorser credibility in all
endorsement situations. Hypotheses H1a, H1b, and H1c were not supported by this
11 H3: In a high involvement condition, people will rely less on the physical appearance of endorser
when making judgments about organizational credibility than in a low involvement condition. Thus,
higher levels of personal involvement will result in a smaller difference in means of endorser credibility
between attractive and unattractive endorsers.