The Effect of
Trust in Feelings
on Customer’s
Persuasion Knowledge:
A Study About
Native Advertising.
Master Thesis Defense
By:
Increasing popularity of new
advertising format in the
online news site.
Designed to have similar
editorial style with the
non-commercial content
(Wojdynski, 2016).
Readers see it as the
product of journalistic, not as
an advertisement.
Emerging critics for this type
of advertisement as it may
creates false belief.
Readers capability to
critically judge the article is
becoming more important.
FTC recommends
sponsorship disclosure is to
be made before the text
article (FTC, 2013).
Many did not recognize the sponsored article is an
advertisement.
Fail to activate the persuasion knowledge →fail to critically judge the content
and claims made therein.
No academic explanation about this phenomenon →
Research gap.
Customers
oftentimes
utilized
their
feelings as the sole information source
in making judgment and decisions.
For individuals high on trust in feelings,
internal
input
is
more
diagnostic
compared to the external input (i.e.,
persuasion knowledge).
RQ: Are individuals with high on trust in
feelings (compared to the low trust in
feelings individuals) less likely to detect a
persuasion attempt?
Intro & Problem.
Definition.
Theoretical Background.
Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM).
One’s understanding about persuasion attempt that involves their belief about marketers’ motives and tactics as well as the appropriateness of the persuasion attempt.
Determinant of individuals’ coping behavior towards persuasion attempt.
Not easily retrievable at any point of time, depends on cognitive capacity.
Characteristics.
Developed overtime, knowledge is acquired from experience and exposure to different kind of persuasion attempts.
Can be triggered by sponsorship disclosure as well as message cue contained in an advertisement.
Once accessed, it entails customers’ suspicion about advertisers’ ulterior motives as well as skepticism against advertisement claims.
Theoretical Background.
Message Cue in Sponsored News Article
.
Media: boombastis.com Client: Coca-Cola Indonesia (frestea)
Media: The New York Times Client: Netflix | Orange is the New Black.
Media: Daily Mail UK Client: Mark & Spencer.
Biased source claim increase the
saliency of manipulative intent.
Activating persuasion knowledge
→
readers suspicion against advertisers’
ulterior motives
→
negative attitude
towards the advertisement.
Theoretical Background.
The Effect of Trust in Feelings.
High Trust
in
Feelings.
(HTF)Low Trust
in
Feelings.
(LTF)The extent of one’s belief in their
feelings
are
heading
towards
an
appropriate direction at the point of
judgments and decisions. It could affect
one’s ability to access their set of
persuasion knowledge (Avnet et al.,
2012).
Trust in Feelings.
Less motivated to process the
incoming information,
because:
• Subjective input (i.e.,
feelings) is more
diagnostic.
• Having promotion focus,
which highly value internal input (i.e., feelings).
Motivated to process the
incoming information,
because:
• Feelings are less
diagnostic.
• Having prevention focus, which highly value external input (i.e., persuasion knowledge).
Relying on feeling →unable to access persuasion knowledge
→ persuasion intent not detected →positive attitude.
Conceptual Model.
Trust in
Feelings.
Attitude
towards the
Ad.
Detection of
Persuasion intent.
Message
Cue.
In the presence of different saliency of manipulative intent in the message cue,
the high trust in feelings individuals would less likely to activate their set of
persuasion knowledge and thus will have a more positive attitude towards
the advertisement.
Trust is feelings moderate the
association between the
saliency of manipulative intent
on the attitude toward the
advertisement.
There is a significant
difference of individuals’
self-regulatory focus across high
and low trust in feeling
conditions.
Methodology &
Procedure.
Randomly assigned to specific conditions.
2 (Trust in Feelings: Low vs. High) x 2
(Manipulative intent: salient vs. not salient).
1. Perceived deceptiveness (Kirmani & Zhu, 2007). 2. Advertisement attitude (Muehling, 1987).
3. Manipulation Check.
4. Prevention & promotion focus (Lockwood, 2002).
Online study, utilizing Qualtrics software.
Methodology &
Procedure.
Trust in Feelings.
Not salient manipulative intent. Salient manipulative intent. HTF: Describe 2 successful episodes when relying on feelings in making judgments or decisions. LTF: Describe 10 successful episodes when relying on feelings in making judgments or decisions.Message Cue.
Result & Discussion.
Unexpected answer to our RQ
→
no significant differences in
capability to detect persuasion
attempt across all conditions.
Manipulation check showing an
unintended result
→
treat the
result with caution.
Found no support that different
self-regulatory focus is related to
different trust in feelings
conditions.
However, found support for past
research
→
when participants’
felt that they are being deceived,
their attitude will be more
negative.
Questioning Kirmani & Zhu
(2007) study 1 generalizability: Is
the message cue presented in
their study has been outdated?
→
call for further research.
Subtle use of biased source
claims might still be a safe bet for
Limitations.
Not considering the subjectivity of
manipulative intent a message
cue has and readers’ subjectivity
of skepticism on advertising.
Study format.
Customers’ placebo effect could
play role in determining our result
as we mentioned Canon &
Fujifilm in our study.
The innovativeness nature of
camera
→
participants might infer
that the camera feature is not
relevant any more
→
affect
results.
Individually coded the thought
protocol.
Data collection in the Amazon
MTurk.
1 2 3
References.
Avnet, T., Pham, M., & Stephen, A. (2012). Consumers’ Trust in Feelings as Information. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(4), 720-735.
Kirmani, A., & Zhu, R. (2007). Vigilant against manipulation: The effect of regulatory focus on the use of persuasion knowledge. Journal of Marketing Research, 44(4), 688-701.
Wojdynski, B. (2016). The Deceptiveness of Sponsored News Articles. American Behavioral Scientist, 60(12), 1475-1491.
