Restricting Gambling Advertising and the Third-Person Effect

Along with the rapid growth experienced by the gaming industry in the United States has come increasing calls to restrict or ban gambling advertising. To date, little is known about what motivates people to support such restrictions on advertising. However, one recent theory, the third-person effect, offers a possible explanation. The third-person effect states that when confronted with negative messages, people will overestimate the messages’ effect on others relative to themselves. Additionally, it suggests that it is this misperception that motivates them to take action against such messages. This study investigates whether a third-person effect occurs for gambling advertising and if this effect is related to procensorship attitudes for lotteries and casinos. The results suggest there is a sizable gap between perceptions of the effect of gambling advertising on one’s self versus others, and that the perceived effect on others is related to a willingness to restrict such advertising. 2000 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. The dark side of consumption has begun to receive greater attention from consumer researchers in recent years. This research stream has taken several different forms. Some research has explored the antecedents and consequences of excessive purchasing (Faber, 1992; O’Guinn