Seekers or Sentries? Consumers’ Coping Mechanisms with Third-Party Cookie-Driven Online Behavioral Advertising: A Multidimensional Persuasion Knowledge Approach

The majority of digital advertising is still delivered by third-party cookie-driven online behavioral advertising (tOBA), but little is known about how consumers systematically cope with this prevalent persuasion technology. To fill this gap, this study examined consumers’ coping mechanisms with tOBA, applying multidimensional persuasion knowledge (conceptual and evaluative), tactic evaluation (competitive and cooperative), and persuasion targets’ response strategies (seeker and sentry). Employing an online survey (N = 327), this study proposed and tested a conceptual model of consumers’ coping mechanisms with tOBA. The results revealed that conceptual persuasion knowledge (tactic awareness) was significantly associated with evaluative persuasion knowledge (skepticism) but not with the other (perceived fairness). Skepticism, in turn, was significantly related to both competitive and cooperative evaluations. Conceptual persuasion knowledge was directly associated with competitive and cooperative evaluations, as well as sentry and seeker response strategies. Interestingly, only competitive evaluation was significantly related to both the sentry (avoidance) and seeker (acceptance) strategies for tOBA. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.