IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v181y2022i4d10.1007_s10551-021-04937-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Winning the Battle but Losing the War: Ironic Effects of Training Consumers to Detect Deceptive Advertising Tactics

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew E. Wilson

    (Suffolk University)

  • Peter R. Darke

    (York University)

  • Jaideep Sengupta

    (HKUST)

Abstract

Misleading information pervades marketing communications, and is a long-standing issue in business ethics. Regulators place a heavy burden on consumers to detect misleading information, and a number of studies have shown training can improve their ability to do so. However, the possible side effects have largely gone unexamined. We provide evidence for one such side-effect, whereby training consumers to detect a specific tactic (illegitimate endorsers), leaves them more vulnerable to a second tactic included in the same ad (a restrictive qualifying footnote), relative to untrained controls. We update standard notions of persuasion knowledge using a goal systems approach that allows for multiple vigilance goals to explain such side-effects in terms of goal shielding, which is a generally adaptive process by which activation and/or fulfillment of a low-level goal inhibits alternative detection goals. Furthermore, the same goal systems logic is used to develop a more general form of training that activates a higher-level goal (general skepticism). This more general training improved detection of a broader set of tactics without the negative goal shielding side effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew E. Wilson & Peter R. Darke & Jaideep Sengupta, 2022. "Winning the Battle but Losing the War: Ironic Effects of Training Consumers to Detect Deceptive Advertising Tactics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 997-1013, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:181:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-021-04937-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-021-04937-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-021-04937-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-021-04937-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charlton, Aaron B. & Cornwell, T. Bettina, 2019. "Authenticity in horizontal marketing partnerships: A better measure of brand compatibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 279-298.
    2. Boush, David M & Friestad, Marian & Rose, Gregory M, 1994. "Adolescent Skepticism toward TV Advertising and Knowledge of Advertiser Tactics," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 165-175, June.
    3. Campbell, Margaret C & Kirmani, Amna, 2000. "Consumers' Use of Persuasion Knowledge: The Effects of Accessibility and Cognitive Capacity on Perceptions of an Influence Agent," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(1), pages 69-83, June.
    4. Main, Kelley J. & Guo, Wenxia & White, Katherine, 2019. "Sensitivity to Ulterior Motives in Retail Settings: The Moderating Role of Dual-Identity versus Sole-Identity Consumers," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 63-75.
    5. Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter, 1994. "The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 1-31, June.
    6. Peltzman, Sam, 1981. "The Effects of FTC Advertising Regulation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 403-448, December.
    7. Tessitore, Tina & Geuens, Maggie, 2019. "Arming consumers against product placement: A comparison of factual and evaluative educational interventions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 38-48.
    8. Claas Christian Germelmann & Jean-Luc Herrmann & Mathieu Kacha & Peter Darke, 2020. "Congruence and Incongruence in Thematic Advertisement–Medium Combinations: Role of Awareness, Fluency, and Persuasion Knowledge," Post-Print hal-03031674, HAL.
    9. Cho, Yoon-Na & Taylor, Charles R., 2020. "The role of ambiguity and skepticism in the effectiveness of sustainability labeling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 379-388.
    10. Jodie Ferguson & Pam Ellen & Gabriela Piscopo, 2011. "Suspicion and Perceptions of Price Fairness in Times of Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 331-349, January.
    11. Johar, Gita Venkataramani & Simmons, Carolyn J, 2000. "The Use of Concurrent Disclosures to Correct Invalid Inferences," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 26(4), pages 307-322, March.
    12. Russo, J Edward & Metcalf, Barbara L & Stephens, Debra, 1981. "Identifying Misleading Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(2), pages 119-131, September.
    13. Guang-Xin Xie & Robert Madrigal & David Boush, 2015. "Disentangling the Effects of Perceived Deception and Anticipated Harm on Consumer Responses to Deceptive Advertising," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 281-293, June.
    14. Jessica Renee Fernandez & Arie W. Kruglanski, 2019. "The Psychology of Multiple Goal Pursuit: Choices, Configurations, and Commitments," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(1), pages 5-12.
    15. Kenneth C. Herbst & Eli J. Finkel & David Allan & Gráinne M. Fitzsimons, 2012. "On the Dangers of Pulling a Fast One: Advertisement Disclaimer Speed, Brand Trust, and Purchase Intention," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(5), pages 909-919.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vahid Rahmani, 2023. "Persuasion knowledge framework: Toward a comprehensive model of consumers’ persuasion knowledge," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 13(1), pages 12-33, June.
    2. Golovacheva, E., 2016. "When consumers activate persuasion knowledge: Review of antecedents and consequences," Working Papers 6440, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    3. Namin Kim & Youri Sung & Moonkyu Lee, 2012. "Consumer Evaluations of Social Alliances: The Effects of Perceived Fit Between Companies and Non-Profit Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 163-174, August.
    4. Skarmeas, Dionysis & Leonidou, Constantinos N., 2013. "When consumers doubt, Watch out! The role of CSR skepticism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1831-1838.
    5. Yann Verhellen & Caroline Oates & Patrick Pelsmacker & Nathalie Dens, 2014. "Children’s Responses to Traditional Versus Hybrid Advertising Formats: The Moderating Role of Persuasion Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 235-255, June.
    6. Nora Moran, 2020. "Illusion of safety: How consumers underestimate manipulation and deception in online (vs. offline) shopping contexts," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 890-911, September.
    7. Serife YAZGAN PEKTAS & Azize HASSAN, 2020. "The Effect of Digital Content Marketing on Tourists’ Purchase Intention," Journal of Tourismology, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 79-98, June.
    8. Tessitore, Tina & Geuens, Maggie, 2019. "Arming consumers against product placement: A comparison of factual and evaluative educational interventions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 38-48.
    9. Annie Banikema & Dominique Roux, 2014. "La propension à résister du consommateur : contribution à l'étude d'une disposition à s'opposer aux tentatives d'influence marchande," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-02956891, HAL.
    10. Svenja Mohr & Rainer Kühl, 2021. "Exploring persuasion knowledge in food advertising: an empirical analysis," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(8), pages 1-27, August.
    11. Rose, Susannah L. & Sah, Sunita & Dweik, Raed & Schmidt, Cory & Mercer, MaryBeth & Mitchum, Ariane & Kattan, Michael & Karafa, Matthew & Robertson, Christopher, 2021. "Patient responses to physician disclosures of industry conflicts of interest: A randomized field experiment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 27-38.
    12. Kumar, Vikas & Kaushal, Vikrant & Shashi,, 2023. "Role of customer perceived brand ethicality in inducing engagement in online brand communities," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Becker-Olsen, Karen L. & Cudmore, B. Andrew & Hill, Ronald Paul, 2006. "The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 46-53, January.
    14. Sah, Sunita & Malaviya, Prashant & Thompson, Debora, 2018. "Conflict of interest disclosure as an expertise cue: Differential effects due to automatic versus deliberative processing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 127-146.
    15. Tuk, M.A. & Verlegh, P.W.J. & Smidts, A. & Wigboldus, D.H.J., 2008. "Sales and Sincerity: The Role of Relational Framing in Word-of-Mouth Marketing," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-056-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    16. Lisa Koonce & Zheng Leitter & Brian White, 2023. "The effect of a warning on investors’ reactions to disclosure readability," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 769-791, June.
    17. Kim, Claire Heeryung & Han, Eunjoo, 2020. "Premiums Paid for What You Believe In: The Interactive Roles of Price Promotion and Cause Involvement on Consumer Response," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 235-250.
    18. Chang-Dae Ham & Jeesun Kim, 2019. "The Role of CSR in Crises: Integration of Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Persuasion Knowledge Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 353-372, August.
    19. Jochen Theis & Marvin Nipper & Marco Meier, 2024. "The influence of corporate philanthropic donations on private investors' valuation judgments: Experimental evidence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 540-554, January.
    20. Grier, Sonya A. & Forehand, Mark R., 2002. "When Is Honesty The Best Policy? The Effect of Stated Company Intent on Consumer Skepticism," Research Papers 1665r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:181:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-021-04937-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.