LETTER: Field studies of psychologically targeted ads face threats to internal validity
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
In their study, Matz et al. report the results of three field experiments that test the effectiveness of psychological targeting in digital advertising. They conclude that matching the content of a persuasive message to an individual’s psychological profile is an effective way to increase the message’s impact. However, we argue that the experimental designs used in the study are subject to threats to internal validity that make it difficult to draw causal conclusions. Specifically, the designs do not adequately control for confounding factors that may be correlated with both the psychological targeting and the outcomes of interest. We discuss alternative experimental designs that could provide more credible evidence on the effectiveness of psychological targeting.
Recommended citation: Eckles, D., Gordon, B. R., & Johnson, G. A. (2018). "LETTER: Field studies of psychologically targeted ads face threats to internal validity." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115(23), E5254-E5255.
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