Authenticity and control in restaurant social media

This study examines how user-generated content and brand-created content on social media shape consumer trust, attitude, and purchase intention in the restaurant industry, an experimental comparison not previously attempted with simultaneous cognitive and affective mediators. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework, a between-subjects experiment exposed 314 participants to realistic restaurant posts that differed only in content source. Perceived marketing efforts predicted purchase intention directly and indirectly through brand trust and brand attitude, with attitude the stronger mediator. User-generated content amplified the pathways to intention, whereas brand-created content raised baseline intention. Authenticity and control therefore operate through distinct, complementary mechanisms rather than a trade-off, confirming the dominance of affective over cognitive processes in hedonic services.