'Meet the blockers'. Youth, young adults and automatic ad avoidance online

Ad blocking - the use of browser extensions such as Adblock (Plus) or Ublock - is becoming mainstream, particularly amongst young web users. This automated form of advertising avoidance has attracted significant attention due to the loss of advertising revenues. Insights in this type of ad avoidance behavior are indispensable. By applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the first aim of this study is to determine the predictive value of personal attitudes, subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) in explaining behavioral intention. The second aim is to reveal the relative importance of the beliefs underpinning these three TPB components. An online survey involving 400 person's aged between 16 and 30 years was conducted. Analysis reveals that attitude is the most important predictor to explain differences in intention to use ad blockers, followed by a person's perceived behavior control towards ad blocking. Within attitude, the most important beliefs affecting one's intention to use an ad blocker are less privacy concerns, less disruption and less data usage and costs.