ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the issue of the manipulation of consumer behaviour by online advertising. Information asymmetry can lead to the manipulation of consumer behaviour and, more precisely, to a feeling of being manipulated, which can be the reason for adverse selection when making purchasing decisions. What, then, is manipulation? What lies at the core of this category? What are its identifiers and by what mechanism does it influence consumer behaviour? Taking a synthetic approach, the chapter offers an answer to these questions. It is an entirely selective answer confined to the fundamental issues of manipulation: its relationship to persuasion, its position in research on social influence, and its position in research on the impact of advertising on consumer behaviour. Interdisciplinary research into consumer behaviour integrates approaches originating in economics, marketing, cognitive psychology, and social psychology.
