Study: Children Will Believe Anything... From Adults

Do you market brands to children? Then a recent study's finding are good news. Do you actually have children? Well, the study might not be so appealing.

Turns out that children — even to their own detriment and against their better reasoning — trust what they are told, over what they "know" to be true. While the conclusions are not entirely shocking, they do raise questions about who activists are going after in the battle over marketing to children.

Researchers at the University of Virginia studied how three-year-olds responded when the children were told (inaccurately) that a sticker was under a yellow cup, even though the children had seen the sticker being hidden under the red cup. The findings were specifically nuanced:

"The children who saw the adult place the arrow on the incorrect cup quickly learned not to trust this sign. But those who heard the adult say the sticker was under a certain cup continued to believe that's where they would find the sticker. Of those 16 children, nine never once found the sticker in eight tries."

So children are bright if left to their own thinking but will believe what an adult tells them. For marketers targeting children, this means having an adult delivering the sell message may be more effective than anything else. Yet, that possibility raises ethical questions of the sort that has inspired the U.K.'s Children's Ethical Communications Kit (aka CHECK).

Now, activists, academics and First Ladies outraged over marketing to children (especially in the fast food industry with "happy meals" and "child to child viral marketing") have a new target: normal adults and parents talking.