Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication via social media offers significant opportunities for organizations. Posts by third-party stakeholders allow for critical evaluation of CSR efforts, fostering authenticity through the anonymous, collective sharing of personal experiences. The adven...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Illia, Laura, Ballester Ripoll, Rafael, Clausen, Anika
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:IE
Repositorio:Repositorio IE
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ie.edu:20.500.14417/4236
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2025.102588
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/4236
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811125000505
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:53 Ciencias Económicas::5311 Organización y dirección de empresas
ODS 3 - Salud y bienestar
ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Authenticity
Large Language Models (LLM)
Illusory Truth Effect
Social Media
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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oai_identifier_str oai:repositorio.ie.edu:20.500.14417/4236
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI eraIllia, LauraBallester Ripoll, RafaelClausen, Anika53 Ciencias Económicas::5311 Organización y dirección de empresasODS 3 - Salud y bienestarODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdadesCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR)AuthenticityLarge Language Models (LLM)Illusory Truth EffectSocial MediaArtificial Intelligence (AI)Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication via social media offers significant opportunities for organizations. Posts by third-party stakeholders allow for critical evaluation of CSR efforts, fostering authenticity through the anonymous, collective sharing of personal experiences. The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), which facilitate the rapid and cost-effective creation of bot-driven posts, raises concerns about whether an increasing number of fabricated CSR messages could linearly influence an audience’s perception of a company’s CSR authenticity. We base our hypotheses on the Illusory Truth Effect, suggesting that perceived authenticity can increase with exposure to more messages. However, this effect only continues up to a certain tipping point, after which it plateaus. We tested our hypotheses in a study with 480 participants, presenting AI-generated CSR testimonials about Shell to three groups: zero, low, and high exposure. We found a significant increase in perceived CSR authenticity in the low exposure group compared to the zero group, with the effect tapering off in the high exposure group. We conclude that LLMs can effectively replace human-written CSR messages for a fraction of a cent, yet the main strength of LLMs—sheer volume, leading to repeated exposure—is unlikely to become a concern.YesPublishedElsevierhttps://ror.org/02jjdwm7520262025info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2025.102588https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/4236https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811125000505reponame:Repositorio IEinstname:IEInglésIE School of Science & TechnologyIE UniversityApplied MathematicsAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositorio.ie.edu:20.500.14417/42362026-06-15T12:40:57Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
title Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
spellingShingle Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
Illia, Laura
53 Ciencias Económicas::5311 Organización y dirección de empresas
ODS 3 - Salud y bienestar
ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Authenticity
Large Language Models (LLM)
Illusory Truth Effect
Social Media
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
title_short Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
title_full Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
title_fullStr Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
title_full_unstemmed Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
title_sort Fabricating CSR authenticity: The Illusory Truth Effect of CSR communication on social media in the AI era
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Illia, Laura
Ballester Ripoll, Rafael
Clausen, Anika
author Illia, Laura
author_facet Illia, Laura
Ballester Ripoll, Rafael
Clausen, Anika
author_role author
author2 Ballester Ripoll, Rafael
Clausen, Anika
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv 53 Ciencias Económicas::5311 Organización y dirección de empresas
ODS 3 - Salud y bienestar
ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Authenticity
Large Language Models (LLM)
Illusory Truth Effect
Social Media
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
topic 53 Ciencias Económicas::5311 Organización y dirección de empresas
ODS 3 - Salud y bienestar
ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Authenticity
Large Language Models (LLM)
Illusory Truth Effect
Social Media
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
description Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication via social media offers significant opportunities for organizations. Posts by third-party stakeholders allow for critical evaluation of CSR efforts, fostering authenticity through the anonymous, collective sharing of personal experiences. The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), which facilitate the rapid and cost-effective creation of bot-driven posts, raises concerns about whether an increasing number of fabricated CSR messages could linearly influence an audience’s perception of a company’s CSR authenticity. We base our hypotheses on the Illusory Truth Effect, suggesting that perceived authenticity can increase with exposure to more messages. However, this effect only continues up to a certain tipping point, after which it plateaus. We tested our hypotheses in a study with 480 participants, presenting AI-generated CSR testimonials about Shell to three groups: zero, low, and high exposure. We found a significant increase in perceived CSR authenticity in the low exposure group compared to the zero group, with the effect tapering off in the high exposure group. We conclude that LLMs can effectively replace human-written CSR messages for a fraction of a cent, yet the main strength of LLMs—sheer volume, leading to repeated exposure—is unlikely to become a concern.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2025.102588
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/4236
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811125000505
url https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2025.102588
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/4236
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811125000505
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv IE School of Science & Technology
IE University
Applied Mathematics
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositorio IE
instname:IE
instname_str IE
reponame_str Repositorio IE
collection Repositorio IE
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,812429

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