UC Santa Barbara

Online behavioral advertising (OBA) often highlights personal one’s shortcomings (e.g., weight loss products, wrinkle creams) yet little research has explored the effects of OBA on negative self-concept or the mechanism for self-concept change following exposure to OBA of any kind. To address these research gaps, and explore possible moderators of this phenomenon, a 2 (ad personalization: personalized or non-personalized advertising) x 2 (advertising favorability: favorable or unfavorable) x 1 (no advertising control) between-subjects experiment (N = 120) was conducted to determine the effects of these factors on perceptions of publicness, self-concept, and privacy concern. Results found some support for the hypothesis that unfavorable OBA can temporarily shift self-concept even when it does not reference a specific instance of self-presentation. However, perceived publicness did not appear to mediate this effect, nor was there evidence for trait self-esteem or causal attributions as moderators. Finally, OBA favorability did not affect online privacy concern. Theoretical implications for future research are discussed, as well as practical implications for digital marketing, platform user experience, and consumer behavior. Keywords: OBA, personalized advertising, self-concept, self-presentation, public commitment, identity shift, feedback, algorithm as audience