“I Thought My Idea to Use Your Idea Was a Great Idea”: Inadvertent Plagiarism in Marketing

Department(s)

Graziadio Business School

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Abstract

Cryptomnesia (i.e., inadvertent plagiarism) occurs when an individual believes that an idea from an external source is their own unique creation, and this can negatively impact marketers involved with creative activities. While several factors can influence whether an individual attends to the source of an idea during encoding and memory retrieval, cryptomnesia has been surprisingly overlooked within an advertising context. The purpose of this research note is to introduce the concept of cryptomnesia to advertising, explore cultural distance as a previously untested antecedent, and examine the effect of cryptomnesia on consumer evaluations. We conduct three experiments that provide evidence for how greater cultural distance is associated with increased cryptomnesia in advertising—although being in a flow state can attenuate this effect—resulting in decreased consumer attitudes, cognitions, and behavioral intentions.

Publication Title

Journal of Advertising

ISSN

00913367

DOI

10.1080/00913367.2021.2000525

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