Abstract

Influencer advertising has become a multibillion-dollar industry, with young people playing a large role. While there are ethical concerns regarding targeting an audience too young to comprehend this subtle form of advertising, clear disclosures can help trigger children’s persuasion knowledge. Some influencers and sponsors have expressed concern that prominent disclosures will negatively affect their ability to persuade, but the persuasion knowledge model (PKM) suggests that when audiences perceive advertising to be informative and/or entertaining, the positive aspects can trump resistance to persuasion. The current two-study investigation therefore examines the intersection of the PKM and developmental theory (theory of mind) to determine how children (ages five to twelve years) and adolescents (ages thirteen to seventeen years) perceive influencers’ YouTube videos in the presence of varying types of disclosures. Results suggest that influencers can and should fully disclose advertising content to youth, helping to activate persuasion knowledge without harming the influencer–follower relationship. However, theory of mind emerged as much more strongly associated with activation of persuasion knowledge than any other variables, suggesting that disclosures may not be sufficient for the least mature audiences. Interestingly, aspects of persuasion knowledge were activated even without identifying the video as a form of advertising. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

摘要

网红广告已经成为一个价值数十亿美元的行业，年轻人扮演着重要角色。虽然针对太年轻而无法理解这种微妙广告形式的受众存在道德问题，但明确的披露可以帮助激发儿童的说服知识。一些有影响力的人和赞助商表示担心突出的披露会对他们的说服能力产生负面影响，但说服知识模型 (PKM) 表明，当受众认为广告具有信息性和/或娱乐性时，积极方面可以胜过对说服的抵制。因此，目前的两项研究调查检查了 PKM 和发展理论（心智理论）的交叉点，以确定儿童（5 至 12 岁）和青少年（13 至 17 岁）如何在存在影响者的情况下感知影响者的 YouTube 视频不同类型的披露。结果表明，影响者可以而且应该向年轻人充分披露广告内容，有助于激活说服知识，而不会损害影响者与追随者的关系。然而，与任何其他变量相比，心理理论与说服知识激活的关联性更强，这表明对于最不成熟的受众来说，披露可能还不够。有趣的是，即使没有将视频识别为一种广告形式，说服知识的各个方面也被激活了。