The Ad That Stops Your Scroll: Why Young Adults Want to Buy What AI Puts in Feed

A study of 609 Chinese young adults links enjoyable, relevant, credible advertising with stronger buying and sharing intentions. AI transparency strengthens the connection between perceived usefulness and buying intention.

A product appears between a friend's update and a short video, looking relevant enough to interrupt your scrolling. Your reaction might come from an entertaining story, a tempting discount, or the feeling that the product fits something you need. The technology choosing that advertisement is only part of the story.

A study titled 'Consumer responses to algorithmic in-feed advertising: AI transparency as a moderator among young adults in social commerce,' published as an article in press in npj Scientific Reports, explores these reactions. Researchers Zhan Huang, Yan Li, and Depeng Du examined how young adults judge advertisements recommended by platform algorithms, including how clearly they understand the reasons behind those recommendations.

Their findings suggest that enjoying an advertisement and considering it useful are separate responses, with each connected to people's willingness to buy and share.

Inside the Everyday Scroll

The research focused on in-feed advertisements, the promotional posts and videos placed among ordinary social media content. Algorithms select and arrange these ads using information such as browsing habits, interactions, and purchasing activity, bringing product discovery into the same space people use for entertainment and conversation.

The team analysed 609 valid online questionnaires from Chinese adults aged 18 to 35, collected in June and July 2026. Participants had experience with in-feed advertising and shopping through social platforms, and roughly three-quarters browsed social commerce platforms at least once a day.

Respondents rated statements on a five-point scale covering six advertising characteristics: entertainment, informativeness, personalization, intrusiveness, incentives, and credibility. The questionnaire explored their emotional reactions, practical assessments, understanding of AI recommendations, and willingness to purchase or share.

The researchers used statistical modelling to examine a simple sequence: the features people notice in an advertisement relate to their internal reactions, which relate to their intentions. Fourteen of the study's 18 proposed relationships received statistical support.

What Feels Good and What Feels Useful

Entertaining ads were linked to more enjoyment, though they did not necessarily help people judge a product's usefulness or value. Clear information and believable claims helped people see ads as useful without necessarily making them more enjoyable. Personalized ads and offers such as discounts were linked to both positive feelings and a stronger sense of value. Ads that interrupted browsing received poorer ratings on both measures.

People who enjoyed ads or found them useful reported greater willingness to buy and share. Feelings and practical judgments had similar links to buying intentions, and enjoyment had a stronger connection with sharing intentions. The study measured what people said they would do, not what they actually bought or shared.

Knowing Why an Ad Appears Matters

AI transparency means helping people understand why an ad appears in their feed and what information, such as browsing habits, was used to recommend it. People who found ads useful showed a stronger interest in buying when they understood how those ads were chosen. Transparency did not significantly strengthen the connection between enjoying an ad and wanting to buy.

The findings do not prove that explaining recommendations increases sales. Researchers surveyed people's opinions and intentions without testing actual purchases or comparing ads with and without explanations. They did not examine whether transparency affected sharing intentions. Platforms should clearly explain why users see particular ads and what information shaped those recommendations.

Better Advertising Starts With the Person Scrolling

The findings suggest that advertisers should create ads that are enjoyable, useful, believable, and relevant to people's needs. Discounts and rewards can add appeal, and ads that interrupt browsing may leave people with a poorer impression. Platforms could explain more clearly why users see certain ads and what information was used to recommend them. An ad's success still depends on how people feel about it and whether they find it useful. Participants were recruited based on availability, so their responses may not reflect all young adults in China or people elsewhere. The survey captured opinions at one point in time and cannot prove that particular ad features caused those responses.

Researchers measured willingness to buy and share, not actual behaviour, and did not directly test the AI systems choosing the ads. Their model explained about 34% of the differences in buying intentions and 32% in sharing intentions, suggesting that other factors also matter. Future studies could track actual purchases and shares, test different ways of explaining recommendations, and involve more varied groups. Researchers could explore whether sharing leads to buying, whether buying encourages sharing, and how people's understanding of AI affects their reactions.