Living is easy with eyes closed: Avoidance of targeted political advertising in response to privacy concerns, perceived personalization, and overload
- Author(s)
- Marlis Stubenvoll, Alice Binder, Selina Noetzel, Melanie Hirsch, Jörg Matthes
- Abstract
Political parties increasingly rely on sophisticated targeting strategies to persuade potential voters. However, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of targeted political ads, considering that citizens frequently oppose the use of their data for political purposes. In this study, we investigate three avoidance behaviors that citizens might employ in order to circumvent targeted political ads: cognitive avoidance, blocking behaviors, and privacy-protective behaviors. We test if privacy concerns, perceived personalization, and overload explain why individuals resort to avoidance behaviors. Moreover, we explore interrelations between the different avoidance strategies. Findings from a two-wave panel study (N = 428) in the context of the Viennese state election showed that privacy concerns increased cognitive avoidance and privacy-protective behaviors. In contrast, perceived personalization decreased cognitive avoidance and blocking behaviors. Cognitive avoidance further reduced privacy-protective behaviors over time, indicating that low-effort strategies might inhibit preventive actions against data collection practices.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
- Journal
- Communication Research (CR)
- Volume
- 51
- Pages
- 203-227
- No. of pages
- 25
- ISSN
- 0093-6502
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502221130840
- Publication date
- 11-2022
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication, Language and Linguistics, Linguistics and Language
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/living-is-easy-with-eyes-closed-avoidance-of-targeted-political-advertising-in-response-to-privacy-concerns-perceived-personalization-and-overload(b7dc30eb-a58a-40b9-8093-6f901e770e31).html