Signal competition in AI-generated retail advertising: Credibility, eeriness, and trust formation
Khanh Duy Phan1, Bao Quoc Truong-Dinh2
1Binh Duong University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
Acta Psychologica
|August 3, 2026
Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) advertising creates competing signals of credibility and eeriness, impacting consumer trust. Understanding this signal competition is key to improving AI-driven marketing effectiveness and behavioral conversion.
Area of Science:
- Marketing
- Consumer Psychology
- Artificial Intelligence
Background:
- AI-generated advertising is prevalent in retail and services, but its impact on consumer trust and purchase intent is unclear.
- Existing theories struggle to explain inconsistent findings on AI advertising effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- Reconceptualize advertising effectiveness for AI-generated content as signal resolution, not just persuasion.
- Investigate how AI advertising creates competing perceptions of credibility and eeriness.
- Examine the role of trust in mediating AI advertising's effect on engagement and purchase intention.
Main Methods:
- Utilized signalling theory and advertising value theory.
- Developed a PLS-SEM model to analyze advertising value as a signal system (informativeness, entertainment, credibility).
- Collected data from a U.S. consumer sample (N=412).
Main Results:
- Identical ad elements can boost credibility while increasing perceived eeriness.
- Trust is determined by the balance of these opposing signals, not overall message quality.
- AI disclosure alters signal weighting, reducing credibility pathways and increasing eeriness-related suppression.
Conclusions:
- AI-generated advertising is characterized by signal competition, a departure from human-centric models.
- This competition explains why AI creative execution may not lead to desired behavioral outcomes.
- Identifies signal competition as a crucial factor for understanding algorithmic persuasion.
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