ABSTRACT
Since its inception in 1994, the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) has served as a conceptual model for understanding how knowledge about persuasion can influence the persuasion process. Research to date has focused mainly on the target audience’s recognition or suspicion about a persuasion episode. This is likely because some constructs in the model may be overlapping and the all-encompassing model itself may offer too many interacting components to offer explanatory value. The PKM appears to work best when researchers use it to investigate consumers’ PK and to understand how that knowledge “shields” against short-term persuasion effects. The less-studied aspects of the model related to agents’ knowledge, topic knowledge, and coping mechanisms provide areas for future research. Given the increase of new advertising forms into developed and developing countries, scholars should investigate the development of PK amongst children as well as “targets” in other cultural contexts.
