The Trust Paradox of "Dissuasion": A Study on the Authenticity Construction Mechanism of "Anti-Recommendation" Content on Social Media—Taking Xiaohongshu Beauty and Skincare Category as an Example

Abstract

In the context where social media "product recommendation" (Zhongcao) content suffers from a widespread trust crisis due to over-commercialization, "anti-recommendation" (Fan Zhongcao) content adopting a "dissuasive" stance has unexpectedly gained user trust. Focusing on this trust paradox, this study investigates anti-recommendation posts in the beauty and skincare category on the Xiaohongshu platform. Employing content analysis and qualitative comparative analysis, this study examines how anti-recommendation content constructs "perceived authenticity" through textual strategies across three dimensions: narrative structure, rhetorical language, and visual encoding. The findings reveal that the perceived authenticity of anti-recommendation content stems from the deliberate display of "backstage" performances: life-like scenes, personalized narrative perspectives, moderately restrained expressions of negative emotions, and the dense usage of credibility signals such as "no ads" collectively encode a "non-commercial" signal of authenticity. However, when this set of encoding strategies is identified by users as another form of "performance," the perceived authenticity collapses immediately. This study provides a new analytical path for the application of Goffman's dramaturgical theory in the digital communication context and offers a micro-perspective for research on "credibility" within social media content ecosystems.