Restricting gambling advertising and the third-person effect

Along with the rapid growth experienced by the gaming industry in the Unite d States has come increasing calls to restrict or ban gambling advertising. To date, little is known about what motivates people to support such restr ictions on advertising. However, one recent theory, the third-person effect , offers a possible explanation. The third-person effect states that when c onfronted with negative messages, people will overestimate the messages' ef fect on others relative to themselves. Additionally, it suggests that it is this misperception that motivates them to take action against such message s. This study investigates whether a third-person effect occurs for gamblin g advertising and if this effect is related to procensorship attitudes for lotteries and casinos. The results suggest there is a sizable gap between p erceptions of the effect of gambling advertising on one's self versus other s, and that the perceived effect on others is related to a willingness to r estrict such advertising. (C) 2000 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.