The effect of celebrity endorsement on omission neglect at different levels of skepticism

The main objective of this study was to identify the effect of omission neglect concerning advertisements endorsed by celebrities given different levels of skepticism of the evaluators. Through three experiments (n = 512 university students and use of Analysis of Variance [ANOVA]), in which we manipulated the volume of information on different products and services, we identified that the endorsement of celebrities (Study 1) congruent with the endorsed product (Study 2) makes it difficult to recognize the omission of information by making individuals with high cognitive contextual knowledge (experts) neglect the omission of information. Through moderation analysis, we identified that high skepticism regarding advertisements cancels the effect of the endorsement (Study 3), causing experts to recognize the existence of absent data and, thus, make less positive evaluations of the advertisements analyzed. At the end of the study, we indicate management recommendations to potentiate the effect of advertisements endorsed by celebrities.