Media multitasking, counterarguing, and brand attitude: Testing the mediation effects of advertising attention and cognitive load

Abstract

Inhibiting counterarguing is a critical approach to persuasion. Multitasking effects have been closely associated with the idea of reducing counterarguing vis cognitive overload. Those cognitively overloaded are less likely to counterargue, and persuasion is more likely to occur. Direct evidence of the occurrence of cognitive overload is, however, limited. This study tested cognitive overload as the explanation. This study also tested an alternative explanation: media multitasking reduces counterarguing and enhances persuasion by lowering attention. A one-factor (single medium and multitasking) between-subjects experiment was conducted. The results show that multitaskers and single-medium users had a similar level of cognitive load. Multitaskers paid less attention to the ads, which inhibited counterarguing and enhanced subsequent brand attitude compared to single-medium users. This study initiated the effort to examine the underlying mechanism of the counterarguing inhibition hypothesis, but the results failed to support it. The results supported the proposed lower advertising attention explanation based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and intentional exposure theory.