Heleen Dekoninck
Biographic Data
| ID | 6013958 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Heleen Dekoninck |
| GIVEN NAMES | Heleen |
| FAMILY NAME | Dekoninck |
| SIGNATURE | DEKONINCK H |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8621-3570 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Cold Facts on the Influencer Hotline
Social media influencers addressing the environmental crisis, also called “greenfluencers,” almost seamlessly blend pro-environmental content with insights into their personal lives. Yet, we know little about how this specific interplay affects consumers’ pro-environmental attitudes and behavior dynamically over time. To that end, we used a pre-registered digital field experiment in which 263 Belgian women followed a seemingly real greenfluencer …
Adolescents’ Trust in Political Content From Influencers
In today’s fragmented media landscape, social media influencers (SMIs) have emerged as popular political information sources among young audiences—despite often lacking political expertise. However, we have limited knowledge about factors that predict trust in SMIs’ political content during early and middle adolescence, a critical period during which political attitudes are formed. This study proposes two novel theoretical pathways to explain var…
Adolescents as Citizen Scientists
Social media influencers (SMIs) are important information sources for socio-political topics among adolescents. Adolescents may even ascribe digital super peer perceptions to some SMIs for sharing sensitive information (e.g., LGBTQ+ issues, health) that may be unavailable or uncomfortable to discuss among their regular peers. However, it remains unclear which socio-political topics adolescents encounter and which differential susceptibility facto…
Idols Within Reach
Media do not only enable social comparison with perfect idols but also with role models who seem “attainable” and thus within reach for youth, which can invoke inspiration. Yet, research lacks a comprehensive validated scale to reliably assess such attainability perceptions. Addressing this research gap, we developed the Perceptions of Media Role Models’ Attainability (PoMRA) scale and two short-form versions of this measure, which we tested and …
Battle of the E-cowarriors
Environmental social media influencers (SMIs)—or ‘greenfluencers’—nowadays receive considerable scholarly and public attention. Yet, SMIs' persuasive power compared to institutional sources like environmental nonprofit organizations (ENPOs) on social media remains uninvestigated. We address this gap with a pre-registered between-subjects experiment ( N = 269) among 16-to-25-year-olds from Belgium using real SMIs and ENPOs. We find that both sourc…
Inspiring G(re)en Z
The affordances of digital platforms have blurred the boundaries between environmentalism, celebrity status, and science communication. As such, nowadays, many social media influencers – who have risen to fame due to successful self-branding – act as educators and role models for environmental matters. To illuminate the appeal of green influencers and the relationship they develop with their followers, we conducted in-depth interviews employing a…
The “greenfluence”
Environmental influencers have gained immense popularity on social media, promoting a sustainable lifestyle by interweaving environmental topics with their everyday content. Drawing from the theoretical approach of parasocial opinion leaders, we investigate, for the first time, the implications of environmental influencers for different dimensions of youth’s participation behavior, and whether parasocial relationships (PSRs) with influencers mode…
The Mobilizing Power of Influencers for Pro-Environmental Behavior Intentions and Political Participation
So-called “influencers” increasingly use their popularity on social media to raise their voice to promote political topics such as climate change, human rights, or party politics. As digital opinion leaders they may exert a powerful influence on their followers’ attitudes and behavior, motivating them to protect the environment or to engage in political participation online. Based on the Gateway Hypothesis, we argue that these online activities m…
The “greenfluence”
Environmental influencers have gained immense popularity on social media, promoting a sustainable lifestyle by interweaving environmental topics with their everyday content. Drawing from the theoretical approach of parasocial opinion leaders, we investigate, for the first time, the implications of environmental influencers for different dimensions of youth’s participation behavior, and whether parasocial relationships (PSRs) with influencers mode…
The Mobilizing Power of Influencers for Pro-Environmental Behavior Intentions and Political Participation
So-called “influencers” increasingly use their popularity on social media to raise their voice to promote political topics such as climate change, human rights, or party politics. As digital opinion leaders they may exert a powerful influence on their followers’ attitudes and behavior, motivating them to protect the environment or to engage in political participation online. Based on the Gateway Hypothesis, we argue that these online activities m…
Inspiring G(re)en Z
The affordances of digital platforms have blurred the boundaries between environmentalism, celebrity status, and science communication. As such, nowadays, many social media influencers – who have risen to fame due to successful self-branding – act as educators and role models for environmental matters. To illuminate the appeal of green influencers and the relationship they develop with their followers, we conducted in-depth interviews employing a…
The “greenfluence”
Environmental influencers have gained immense popularity on social media, promoting a sustainable lifestyle by interweaving environmental topics with their everyday content. Drawing from the theoretical approach of parasocial opinion leaders, we investigate, for the first time, the implications of environmental influencers for different dimensions of youth’s participation behavior, and whether parasocial relationships (PSRs) with influencers mode…
Idols Within Reach
Media do not only enable social comparison with perfect idols but also with role models who seem “attainable” and thus within reach for youth, which can invoke inspiration. Yet, research lacks a comprehensive validated scale to reliably assess such attainability perceptions. Addressing this research gap, we developed the Perceptions of Media Role Models’ Attainability (PoMRA) scale and two short-form versions of this measure, which we tested and …
Battle of the E-cowarriors
Environmental social media influencers (SMIs)—or ‘greenfluencers’—nowadays receive considerable scholarly and public attention. Yet, SMIs' persuasive power compared to institutional sources like environmental nonprofit organizations (ENPOs) on social media remains uninvestigated. We address this gap with a pre-registered between-subjects experiment ( N = 269) among 16-to-25-year-olds from Belgium using real SMIs and ENPOs. We find that both sourc…
Cold Facts on the Influencer Hotline
Social media influencers addressing the environmental crisis, also called “greenfluencers,” almost seamlessly blend pro-environmental content with insights into their personal lives. Yet, we know little about how this specific interplay affects consumers’ pro-environmental attitudes and behavior dynamically over time. To that end, we used a pre-registered digital field experiment in which 263 Belgian women followed a seemingly real greenfluencer …
Adolescents’ Trust in Political Content From Influencers
In today’s fragmented media landscape, social media influencers (SMIs) have emerged as popular political information sources among young audiences—despite often lacking political expertise. However, we have limited knowledge about factors that predict trust in SMIs’ political content during early and middle adolescence, a critical period during which political attitudes are formed. This study proposes two novel theoretical pathways to explain var…
Adolescents as Citizen Scientists
Social media influencers (SMIs) are important information sources for socio-political topics among adolescents. Adolescents may even ascribe digital super peer perceptions to some SMIs for sharing sensitive information (e.g., LGBTQ+ issues, health) that may be unavailable or uncomfortable to discuss among their regular peers. However, it remains unclear which socio-political topics adolescents encounter and which differential susceptibility facto…
Influencer marketing (7 works) · Business (5 works) · Media Influence and Health (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Marketing (4 works) · Perception (4 works) · Social Media and Politics (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Political science (3 works) · Politics (3 works)