Perceived informative intention in advertising and its attenuating effect on persuasion attribution among children

Abstract

Although substantial research has been dedicated to children's understanding of advertising, the role of more diverse marketing purposes (attention capturing, product liking, and informative intentions) still has not been examined in relation to the activation of persuasion attribution among young consumers. Previous research has focused on one perceived advertising intention at a time, disregarding the complex nature of advertisements' purposes and how these different perceived intentions relate to persuasion attribution. It is still unclear whether viewing advertising as a source of information reduces persuasion attribution and mitigates the attention capturing and product liking evaluations when children are exposed to commercial messages. This study shows that children's comprehension of attention capturing and product liking intentions relate to higher persuasion attribution. However, perceiving advertisements as a source of information attenuates the effects of product liking and attention capturing intentions on persuasion attribution in older children (10-11 and 12-13 years) who were expected to be more critical of advertising. No such effects were observed among younger children (8-9 years). The study highlights that advertisements are evaluated in a more complex manner by children than has been previously thought. K E Y W O R D Sadvertising, attention capturing intention, children, informative intention, persuasion attribution, product liking intention

Impact of Advertising Appeals on Children's Well-being: Exploring the Moderating Role of Disposition

“…Finding is aligned with the earlier research study conducted upon the role of disposition in understanding rational advertising appeals based commercial messages generated for the children's persuasion (O'Rourke et al, 2019;Lapierre, 2019;Kriks et al, 1982). This particular finding is also consistent with the past research study focusing upon the relationship of learning abilities and psychological well-being of the children which influencing knowledge, attitude and behavior of the children who suggesting that learning abilities and guidance strengthen the understanding of the persuasive messages (Tarabashkina et al, 2018;Hudders, 2017;Koblinsky et al, 1982).…”

Comparing measures of persuasion knowledge adapted for young children

“…Only two of the six CPK measures were significantly associated with each other: the intention the child should buy it and the intention the parent should buy it for them ( R = 0.43; ϕ = 0.26, p < .001). Low correlations between CPK measures have been found in other studies with multiple‐item measures of CPK (Buijzen, ; Mallinckrodt & Mizerski, ; Tarabashkina, Quester, & Tarabashkina, ).…”

Priming skepticism: Unintended consequences of one‐sided persuasion knowledge access

“…While researchers have different views about whether both conceptual persuasion knowledge and skepticism are formally part of the persuasion knowledge construct (see e.g., Boerman, van Reijmersdal, & Neijens, ; Boush et al, ; Obermiller & Spangenberg, ; Rozendaal et al, , ), most persuasion knowledge research has tended to assume a link between the two (e.g., DeRosia, ; Hibbert et al, ; Pounders, Moulard, & Babin, ; Schindler, Morrin, & Bechwati, ; Stafford, ; Tarabashkina, Quester, & Tarabashkina, ; Wentzel et al, ). For example, researchers have asserted that when consumers are prompted to access conceptual persuasion knowledge, they consequently “regard the marketer's claims with greater suspicion and may infer that the marketer is deceptive and manipulative” (Wentzel et al, , p. 513), they become “skeptical about the persuasive intent of an advertiser” (Phillips & McQuarrie, , p. 384), and they respond with “protective mechanisms, such as increased skepticism” (Wojdynski & Evans, ).…”