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The increasing diversity in advertising options warrants more research on user engagement with advertisements across different digital platforms. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model and consumer skepticism theories, we examine the central role of the three-dimensional construct of trust—cognitive, emotional, and behavioral—in overcoming advertisement skepticism (AS) and improving advertisement engagement (AE). Using survey data from a large sample in the United States (N = 841), we compare the effect of skepticism on engagement as mediated by trust, on social (Facebook) versus search (Google) platforms. In a multistage analysis, initial results indicated that trust is a significant mediator for both Facebook and Google. Subsequent testing revealed that for Facebook, the behavioral dimension of trust fully mediated the skepticism and engagement link, whereas for Google, all three dimensions of trust only partially mediated the skepticism and engagement link. This suggests that on social media platforms, behavioral trust is crucial for overcoming skepticism to achieve better engagement. Furthermore, when comparing all pathways in the model, we found that on search platforms, cognitive trust was significantly more influential in overcoming skepticism for better engagement.
Thakur et al. (Tue,) studied this question.