The Influence of Online Advertising on Adolescents’ Perceived Credibility of Information Related to the Fitness/Dietary Supplements

LACKO, David and Hana MACHÁČKOVÁ. The Influence of Online Advertising on Adolescents’ Perceived Credibility of Information Related to the Fitness/Dietary Supplements. In Cyberspace. 2021.

Basic information

• Original name: The Influence of Online Advertising on Adolescents’ Perceived Credibility of Information Related to the Fitness/Dietary Supplements
• Authors: LACKO, David and Hana MACHÁČKOVÁ.
• Edition: Cyberspace, 2021.

Other information

• Original language: Czech
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50101 Psychology
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Most adolescents seek health-related information online. However, such information is often written in the form of an advertisement presenting products that could jeopardize their health. Furthermore, modern ads may tend to conceal their real purpose which makes their recognition much harder (i.e., native ads). The perceived credibility of such advertised information by adolescents might have an impact on their buy intentions and usage of potentially noxious products. The aim of the research is, therefore, to examine the influence of advertising on the perceived credibility of online information, especially fitness-related products and dietary supplements. We present a pre-registered experiment on 681 Czech adolescents. Participants were randomly split into three groups. Each group was exposed to a fictional website that contained a banner ad, a native ad, or did not contain any ad. Results suggest that the presence of an ad on a website decreases the perceived credibility of the information. Specifically, native ads decreased it for girls, whereas banner ads decreased it for boys. There was no difference between younger and older adolescents, nor a difference between banner and native ads. Adolescents were generally successful in identifying both kinds of ads and they showed rather low purchase intentions for the advertised products. The potential implications of our findings for adolescents and their parents will be discussed.