Adolescent Skepticism toward TV Advertising and Knowledge of Advertiser Tactics

1994/06/01 by David M. Boush, Marian Friestad, Gregory M. Rose · 613 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Advertising #Business #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Media studies #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Philosophy #Psychology #Skepticism #Sociology #Theology

paper · doi:10.1086/209390

published in Journal of Consumer Research 21(1), 165 (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 1994/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

A longitudinal study of middle school students examined adolescents' skepticism toward advertising and their beliefs about the persuasive tactics advertisers employ. Comparisons across grade levels and over the course of the school year indicated that knowledge about advertiser tactics developed in the direction of adult understanding. Skeptical attitudes toward advertisers' motives showed no differences across grade levels; however, students generally became more disbelieving of advertising claims as the school year progressed. The level of skepticism toward advertising was high and was positively related to having a more adult understanding of advertising tactics.

Citations

• Measurement of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence

Cited by

• The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts
• Goal Seeker and Persuasion Sentry: How Consumer Targets Respond to Interpersonal Marketing Persuasion
• Consumers' Use of Persuasion Knowledge: The Effects of Accessibility and Cognitive Capacity on Perceptions of an Influence Agent
• General Science Skepticism: Development and Validation of a New Scale
• When Is Honesty the Best Policy? The Effect of Stated Company Intent on Consumer Skepticism
• An Examination of the Effects of Activating Persuasion Knowledge on Consumer Response to Brands Engaging in Covert Marketing
• Television alcohol advertising: Do children really mean what they say?
• Large Language Models as 'Hidden Persuaders': Fake Product Reviews are Indistinguishable to Humans and Machines
• Development of a Scale to Measure Consumer Skepticism Toward Advertising
• Persuasion Knowledge in the Marketplace: A Meta‐Analysis
• Was Television Responsible for a New Generation of Smokers?

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• Advertising and Young People’s Critical Reasoning Abilities: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
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