The influence of scientese on ad credibility and ad liking: A cross-cultural investigation of ads for beauty products

摘要

Current advertising for beauty products makes abundant use of scientese - scientific jargon in statistical and/or verbal form. As of yet, no study has examined the impact of scientese in an advertising context. Therefore, an experiment was designed to investigate the credibility and liking of ads for different beauty products with and without scientese. The study assesses effects in a culture likely to be susceptible to scientese because of its large power distance and high uncertainty avoidance (Wallonia) and in a culture less likely to be susceptible to scientese (the Netherlands). Dutch (n = 72) and Walloon [n = 60) participants judged different ads for beauty products, with or without different forms of scientese. In both cultures, ads with scientese were found to be more credible but less liked than ads without scientese.