## 4 Results and Discussion
The results were robust when the control variables: individual's identification with the YouTube, credibility of the YouTube, and trustworthiness of the YouTube were added to the model (F(1, 118) = 7.418, \(p\) = 0.007). This shows that the attitude towards the vlog is related to the interaction of type of message and the YouTube's media metrics on the stimuli, and not to the level of the control variables. Participants exposed to the 1 SM had more positive attitudes when the high YouTube's media metrics were informed, signaling low involvement with the message, which in turns leads participants to pay less attention to each other's idiosyncratic qualities, while making them aware of and focus on the YouTube's media metrics [26; 42]. If the YouTube has high media metrics, the individual will pay less attention and have less motivation to process the 1 SM [9], following the peripheral route of the ELM. Conversely, we found that the effect of 2 SMs on attitude towards the vlog is less positive with the high YouTube's media metrics than without. This result is congruent with previous research showing that, in contrast to 1 SMs, 2 SMs increase involvement [9], and the individual follows the central route of persuasion to process the message [9]. Under the ELM, the explanation for the confirmed effect is that the negative information about the product may activate some initial disagreement towards the message, and for this reason, the individual will tend to engage in counter-arguing. As a consequence, they will decrease their attitude towards the vlog with high media metrics. This explanation is congruent with the moderator effect of distraction on the counter-argument production towards divergent messages proved in previous research [42]. Distraction during reception of advertisement messages was associated with decreased and increased levels of communication acceptance. For 1 SMs, YouTube's media metrics could be interpreted as a distraction factor triggering heuristic processing. Differently, for 2 SMs, the negative information of the product in the message will neutralize the possible distraction exerted by the YouTube's media metrics, increasing counter-arguing processing and lowering attitudes towards the vlog. Figure 2: The effect of type of message on attitude towards the vlog moderated by the YouTube’s numbers. In the processing of a 1 SM, to relegate decision making to the group is a factor that causes a lowering of objective self-awareness, following a deindividuated condition [43]. In this research, the high YouTube's media metrics will cause lowering self-awareness, and the individual will have better evaluations towards the product, because they will extend the YouTube's high media metrics to the evaluation of the vlog. By contrast, a 2 SM would increase perceived novelty [9] and have an effect on customers' responses by following the attention and motivation pads, increasing self-awareness. For this reason, the individual exposed to a 2 SM with the high YouTube's media metrics will tend to be more critical in an effort to be different from the others. On the other side, when exposed to a 2 SM without information about the YouTube's media metrics, participants' attitudes towards the vlog are more positive, making the effect of the 2 SM on its credibility and consequently on the responses to the vlog prevail. A recent study analyzed peoples' susceptibility to reputation in the online environment [44]. It was found that a well-rated individual received more generous offers from others exposed to their high rate reputation. This means that the simple fact of assigning a good reputation to an individual appeared to be sufficient to prompt other individuals to reward them with more positive responses. Similarly, in our study, the vlog disclosing the high YouTube's media metrics received more positive evaluations than the vlog without the YouTube's media metrics information. The high YouTube's media metrics may have been perceived as an indicator of the YouTube's reputation.