Multi-Traits and Functions of Social Media Influencers in Arousing Individuals’ Pro-Environmental Behavioral Intentions Under the Tourism Consumption Context

With the rapid development of the sharing economy and the progress of social ecological civilization, social media influencers (SMIs) have garnered significant from academia and practitioners for their pivotal role in fostering pro-environmental behavioral intentions within the tourism consumption context. Drawing on the two-step flow theory, social influence theory, and social learning theory, this study establishes an integrated analytical framework to elucidate how SMIs facilitate the balance between tourism development and ecosystem preservation by activating pro-environmental behavioral behavior. This study conceptualizes the SMIs’ multi-traits as a higher-order construct (a third-order reflective structure), which integrates content-determined and personality-determined attributes, viewing SMIs’ effectiveness as a coherent system of influence rather than a series of fragmented traits. Based on survey data collected from 598 Chinese social media users, the study utilized Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) to test the proposed model. The results demonstrate that SMIs’ multi-traits exert significant positive effects on parasocial relationships and wishful identification, which in turn enhance individuals’ willingness to mimic. This willingness to mimic serves as a core behavioral conversion mechanism, bridging digital influence on three pro-environmental behavioral intentions: general, specific and online advocacy intentions. Furthermore, robustness analyses reveal marked heterogeneity across education- and income-based groups, indicating that the efficacy of SMI traits and the psychological-to-behavioral conversion efficiency are contingent upon the recipients’ socioeconomic resources and cognitive capital. Overall, this study characterizes social media influencer marketing as a scalable, socially driven phenomenon that can effectively activate and promote pro-environmental behavioral intentions, providing valuable insights for environmental education and sustainable tourism development in the digital age.