An empirical investigation of consumer socialization and the impact of internet use on scepticism towards advertising among young adults

Consumer socialization of young people has been a popular area of academic research. Besides parental and peer influences, the effect of media, including advertising communications via the television and the internet, has also been shown to be a powerful socialization agent on young people. Thus, the aim of this research was to explore how various socialization influences impact the development of skepticism towards advertising, which is a positive outcome of consumer socialization, among young adults in Hong Kong. Yet, unlike previous research that focused mainly on the parental, peer and media influences, the purpose of this research was to examine also the role of the Internet as a new socialization agent. Among the three traditional socialization agents, i.e., parents, peers and media, media normative influence was the variable with the most predictive power for advertising skepticism. Internet, being a new socialization agent under study, also demonstrated significant results in the socialization process. The results supports the fact that socialization of young adults is not limited to the traditional sources of influence, but extends to the new source of influence from the Internet.