Virtual influencer authenticity
Description
This dataset contains the responses of 488 participants collected for an experimental study examining the effects of emotional self-disclosure on perceptions of human and virtual influencers across Western and Chinese cultural contexts. The study employed a 2 (culture: Western vs. Chinese) × 2 (influencer type: human vs. virtual) × 2 (emotional self-disclosure: low vs. high) between-subjects design. The dataset includes participants' responses to validated measures of perceived authenticity, perceived credibility (expertise and trustworthiness), behavioral intention, and environmental activism, as well as demographic information, and experimental condition assignments. The combined dataset integrates responses from Western and Chinese participants to facilitate cross-cultural analyses, including multigroup structural equation modeling and factorial analyses. The data support research on influencer marketing, virtual influencers, authenticity, source credibility, emotional self-disclosure, cross-cultural consumer behavior, and sustainability communication. All identifying information has been removed to protect participant anonymity. Keywords: virtual influencers; influencer marketing; authenticity; credibility; emotional self-disclosure; cross-cultural communication; sustainability; behavioral intention; environmental activism; structural equation modeling.