There’s a simple reason you don’t believe the influencers in your feed

The takeaway: we’d rather get a recommendation from a friend.

It turns out there are some benefits to having a smaller social media following. According to a new study published in the Journal of Marketing, influencers with fewer followers have a little more leeway when it comes to the language they use to shill their wares. Researchers found that followers on social media reacted more positively to sponsored posts from influencers who used exclamation points, emoji, and “high-arousal language”—or words like “amazing,” “sensational,” and ”superb“—if they had fewer followers.