The influence of a descriptive norm label on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge and privacy-protective behavior on social networking sites

The literature has advocated the use of a clear and unambiguous label to inform adolescents of advertisements on social media. In this study, we introduce a norm-based label and determine its effects. In a series of three studies, we test a label that triggers the bandwagon heuristic (i.e., “your friends know this is sponsored”) and compare its effectiveness to a traditional label (i.e., “sponsored”) in a social network. The results reveal the normative label as more effective in activating adolescents' persuasion knowledge (Studies 1 and 2) and in triggering adolescents to select stricter ad settings (Study 3). In all studies, descriptive norms operate as the mediator. Based on these results, we discuss existing theories in light of social media.