Carrella Fabio, Simchon Almog, Edwards Matthew, Lewandowsky Stephan
School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Commun Psychol. 2025 Jan 29;3(1):15. doi: 10.1038/s44271-025-00188-8.
The practice of microtargeting in politics, involving tailoring persuasive messages to individuals based on personal vulnerabilities, has raised manipulation concerns. As microtargeting's persuasive benefits are well-established and its use facilitated by AI tools and personality-inference models, ethical and regulatory concerns are magnified. Here, we explore countering microtargeting effects by creating a warning signal deployed when users encounter personality-tailored political ads. Three studies evaluated the effectiveness of warning "popups" against potential microtargeting by comparing persuasiveness of targeted vs. non-targeted messages with and without popups. Using within subject-designs, Studies 1 (N = 666), 2a (N = 432), and 2b (N = 669) reveal a targeting effect, with targeted ads deemed more persuasive than non-targeted ones. More important, the presence of a warning popup had no meaningful impact on persuasiveness. Overall, across the three studies, personality-targeted ads were significantly more persuasive than non-targeted ones, and this advantage persisted despite warnings. Given the focus on transparency in initiatives like the EU's AI Act, our finding that warnings have little effect has potential policy implications.
政治领域中的微观定向做法，即根据个人弱点为个人量身定制有说服力的信息，引发了人们对操纵行为的担忧。由于微观定向的说服效果已得到充分证实，且人工智能工具和人格推理模型推动了其应用，伦理和监管方面的担忧被放大。在此，我们探讨通过创建一种警告信号来对抗微观定向的影响，该信号在用户遇到针对个人定制的政治广告时触发。三项研究通过比较有和没有弹出窗口时定向与非定向信息的说服力，评估了警告“弹出窗口”对潜在微观定向的有效性。采用被试内设计，研究1（N = 666）、2a（N = 432）和2b（N = 669）揭示了一种定向效应，即定向广告被认为比非定向广告更具说服力。更重要的是，警告弹出窗口的出现对说服力没有显著影响。总体而言，在这三项研究中，针对个人定制的广告比非定向广告更具说服力，而且尽管有警告，这种优势依然存在。鉴于欧盟《人工智能法案》等举措对透明度的关注，我们关于警告效果甚微的发现具有潜在的政策意义。
