The Third-Person Effect in Controversial Product Advertising

This research seeks to determine if there is a third-person effect in the realm of con-troversial product advertising. Survey participants rated their perceived levels of per-sonal offense to product categories as well as the expected offense levels of other groups of people. The results show a significant third-person effect for five of six prod-uct categories where an effect was expected. In the case of advertising for racial extremist groups, a first-person effect existed as predicted. The findings suggest previ-ous studies of controversial products may have overestimated actual levels of offense by ignoring the possibility of a third-person effect