Alert eyes, resistant minds: how privacy sensitivity drives avoidance of persuasive narratives in in-feed advertising
通过实验室实验和眼动追踪，研究了隐私敏感用户如何因心理抗拒而回避信息流广告中的说服性叙事，发现早期视觉回避但后期注意力难以脱离的动态模式。
Purpose Social media platforms leverage user data to precisely deliver persuasive in-feed advertising aimed at promoting products. However, this approach may provoke heightened adverse reactions among users with elevated privacy sensitivity. This study examines the mechanisms by which privacy-sensitive users avoid persuasive narratives embedded in in-feed native advertising, with a particular focus on the processes of psychological reactance and visual avoidance. Design/methodology/approach This study employed two laboratory experiments and an eye-tracking experiment to examine how privacy-sensitive users process persuasive in-feed native advertising. The eye-tracking component was used to observe users’ visual attention biases, and gaze data were analyzed using a binning approach to segment early- and later-stage attentional processing. Findings Findings indicated that privacy-sensitive users exhibited avoidance toward persuasive advertising, mediated by psychological reactance. Users demonstrated a simultaneous presence of attentional avoidance and whole-period attention toward persuasive narratives. Specifically, results showed that privacy-sensitive users exhibited early-stage visual avoidance toward persuasive ads, while late-stage attention proved difficult to disengage, providing evidence for attentional biases and impacting ad avoidance attitudes. Originality/value This study advances advertising research by integrating psychological reactance theory and attentional bias into the context of in-feed native advertising. Using lab experiments and eye-tracking, it reveals how privacy-sensitive users engage in cognitive and visual advertising avoidance. A key contribution lies in applying time-course analysis to uncover dynamic gaze patterns, bridging attention and avoidance. Findings offer novel theoretical insights and practical strategies for advertisers, platforms and designers.