How Marketer Actions Influence Persuasion Knowledge: Meta-Analytic Evidence of a Nonlinear Relationship

Persuasion knowledge development helps consumers cope with marketplace persuasion, leads to better consumer decision making, and adds to consumer well-being. While significant research exists on the impact that individual factors (e.g., age) and cues (e.g., sponsorship disclosure messages) have on consumers’ persuasion knowledge development, little is known about the influence of marketer actions, such as advertising spending. This is surprising, as marketer activities provide a major source of information for consumers’ persuasion knowledge learning and practice and can theoretically either support or hinder persuasion knowledge development. The authors develop several explanations for various types of relationships between advertising spending and persuasion knowledge. They test these relationships by means of a meta-analysis of the persuasion knowledge literature based on 140 papers with 162 distinct data sets that address persuasion knowledge measurements. They find that increasing advertising spending also increases consumers’ persuasion knowledge. The relationship follows an inverted U-shaped curve; at a certain level of advertising spending, persuasion knowledge begins to decrease. The findings have theoretical and societal implications and, depending on the level of advertising investment, policy implications with the ultimate aim of ensuring consumer well-being and protecting consumer groups with low levels of persuasion knowledge.