EXPRESS: How Marketer Actions Influence Persuasion Knowledge: Meta-Analytic Evidence of a Non-Linear Relationship

Persuasion knowledge development leads to better coping with marketplace persuasion, better consumer decision-making, and adds to consumer well-being. While significant knowledge 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. We develop several explanations for various types of relationships between advertising spending and persuasion knowledge and test these relationships by means of a meta-analysis of the persuasion knowledge literature based on 140 papers with 162 distinctive datasets that address persuasion knowledge measurements. We find that increasing advertising spending also increases consumers’ persuasion knowledge. The relationship follows an inverted-U curve, and, 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.