Development and Validation of the ADTRUST Scale

Despite extensive interdisciplinary research, trust has been the subject of little systematic study in advertising, though investigations have incorporated and measured the construct. This study was conducted to develop a reliable and valid measure of the trust-in-advertising construct, using a three-stage, nine-step research design. The design produced the ADTRUST Scale, a 20-item Likert-formatted measure, and revealed that trust in advertising is a multidimensional construct (i.e., it has cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions) with four distinct factors: reliability, usefulness, affect, and willingness to rely on. The ADTRUST Scale sufficiently represents the four trust factors; exhibits high reliability and concurrent, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity; and reflects a combination of (1) consumer perception of reliability and usefulness of advertising, (2) consumer affect toward advertising, and (3) consumer willingness to rely on advertising for decision making. The operational and practical significance of the results are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.