Young people ‘easily duped’ by sponsored content

US — An academic study has revealed that young people show an alarming inability to distinguish between content and advertising online. 

Millennials devices crop

A group of academics at Stanford University analysed nearly 8,000 responses from students attending middle school, high school and college across 12 US States and found that while most were able to identify traditional banner ads, 82% of middle schoolers weren't able to distinguish between a news article and native advertising (labelled as ‘sponsored content').

According to the report, Evaluating Information: the cornerstone of civic online reasoning, some young people noted that the content was sponsored but maintained their belief that it was a news article, suggesting that they may not have an idea of what sponsored content actually means. 

Similarly when asked to gauge the trustworthiness of pictures shared on photo-sharing sites, only a small number questioned the source of the post. Similar patterns were found across other social media sites, and with older students.

'Overall, young people’s ability to reason about the information on the internet can be summed up in one word: bleak,’ the report said.

'Our ‘digital natives’ may be able to  flit between Facebook and Twitter while simultaneously uploading a selfie to Instagram and texting a friend.

'But when it comes to evaluating information that flows through social media channels, they are easily duped.'

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.

The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.

Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.

For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.

Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.

0 Comments

Display name

Email

Join the discussion

Newsletter
Stay connected with the latest insights and trends...
Sign Up
Latest From MRS

Our latest training courses

Our new 2025 training programme is now launched as part of the development offered within the MRS Global Insight Academy

See all training

Specialist conferences

Our one-day conferences cover topics including CX and UX, Semiotics, B2B, Finance, AI and Leaders' Forums.

See all conferences

MRS reports on AI

MRS has published a three-part series on how generative AI is impacting the research sector, including synthetic respondents and challenges to adoption.

See the reports

Progress faster...
with MRS 
membership

Mentoring

CPD/recognition

Webinars

Codeline

Discounts