I have autistic relatives, and while marketing tricks generally don't work on them, FOMO and rule of cool absolutely do. My brother is on the spectrum and constantly has to have the latest Apple devices (he can afford to, he's got a great job and he's super smart). My dad was too and he was constantly buying any new gadget he saw.

So I don't remember either of them ever being swayed by a specific commercial or marketing campaign, but a photo and a description could be enough, which is sometimes worse.

On top of that, their microfixations, like my brother's with Apple, means they spend an inordinate amount of money on the thing they feel is too cool to pass up.

When my father died, he and my mom had a household full of junk- not a huge mess like a hoarder's house, just a ton of stuff in the attic and garage and closets and so on- and most of it was technology no one would want. Like a keyboard that would put title graphics on a home video designed for CRT TVs. Or the multiple VHS-C and Hi-8 camcorders he bought. Like my brother, he could afford to do it, but what a waste of money.

So while autistic people don't often get swayed by advertising, they can, in my experience, still spend way too much money on the cool new thing.

I'm autistic and I've always felt I had a certain gullibility. If I'm reading an article, and an argument sounds rational. I'm more likely to fall for it. Even if it contains a ton of bad premises. I'd like to think as I've gotten older and more mature, these kinds of things work less on me. But honestly I'm not sure.

Yes, no one is immune to propaganda in the sense of misinformation.

Ads on the other hand... The often quoted subconscious working of ads just doesn't work on me: i choose my müesli based on parameters (like texture, taste,...), not on whims! So ads go on one side in, out on the other.

only choose materials based on personal research and the suggestions of my peers.

And how do you know what to choose from? Ads.

You may not like it but advertisements work on you. They just need to be more subtle. You are fooling yourself if you think you are immune.

ppl who caption memes with article headlines should off themselves. like seriously let me read the goddamn article you illiterate fuckhole

and if u, catatonic comment reader, don't think that this shit is a problem then just click the down arrow and go. don't try spread your stupid to me

Here's the article Psychology Today references, which delves into the methodology of the research.

Here's the original paper

Is it really just autistic folks? I see marketing material all the time that frustrates because they tell me nothing about the product I'm trying to research.

Like a phone product page saying things like "our camera helps you capture the moments that matter". Well, duh, I know what a camera does and everyone has a camera, but is there anything particularly nice about your camera? Marketing material wastes so much material on uselessly vague stuff. Extra madness when their web design hijacks scrolling to pause my scrolling to change it to advancing some animation..

No, no they can't esp when I block all ads