Effects of skepticism about corporate social responsibility advertising on consumer attitude

We adopted a 2 × 2 mixed experimental design to control for form of corporate social responsibility (CSR), advertising message claims (single message vs. multiple message), and levels of advertising skepticism (high vs. low), to elucidate how these influence advertising preferences and advertising credibility. On the basis of data collected from 320 participants (152 men and 168 women), 4 significant findings were obtained: (a) The form of message claims in CSR advertisements affects advertising preference and advertising credibility, (b) levels of advertising skepticism affect advertising preference and advertising credibility, (c) consumers with high advertising skepticism exhibit advertising skepticism toward CSR advertisements with single-message claims, (d) consumers with low advertising skepticism exhibit preference for CSR advertisements with multiple-message claims. Our findings suggest that enterprises should plan advertisement content carefully when promoting their CSR activities because exaggerated or understated content triggers doubt in consumers’ minds.