My wife stared at me in shock as I ripped opened the package. The FedEx driver hadn’t even made it back to his truck as I held the item up overhead like a trophy. Fumbling for words, she asked: “Why on earth did you buy a Speedo … with dinosaur tear-away trunks?”

Honestly, I couldn’t remember. Maybe it was for a social media skit? Maybe I was planning on making her laugh? Or maybe I was just a “victim” of an online ad that showed me the wrong message at the right time.

Scroll on social media for even 30 seconds, and your brain is already a little more tired than it was before. And in that mentally foggy state, you become more open to ads that just tell you what to buy – “The facts make it clear, we’re the best!” – than to ads that invite you to draw your own conclusion.

I’m a professor of advertising who has spent years studying how social media affects consumer behavior. And my recent research underscores how the mental tax of processing information, or “cognitive load,” changes the way people respond to product claims from brands.

Explicit versus implicit pitches

Joined by fellow researchers Stan Li and Bixuan Sun, I ran three experiments testing how people processed online ads for eco-friendly products.

In each study, half the participants first spent time on Instagram, scrolling for 30 seconds, while the other half did not. Everyone then viewed an Instagram post from a sustainable brand.

Participants in the first study saw an ad for laundry detergent sheets; the second, an eco-friendly phone case; and the third, a reusable water bottle. Each ad laid out several environmental facts about the product.

The only thing we changed was the last line of the caption. Half the participants saw an implicit conclusion: “Who makes the best, most sustainable detergent? Here are the facts, now decide for yourself.” The other half saw an explicit conclusion: “Who makes the best, most sustainable........

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