Shrinks for Sale

A call for restrictions on psychological research
by advertisers into products for children.
By CONSTANCE L. HAYS | New York Times | October 22, 1999

DEPLORING what they see as an unfair and conflict-ridden manipulation of the young, a group of psychologists and other professionals has called on the American Psychological Association to restrict the use of psychological research by advertisers pitching toys, video games, snack food and other products to children.

The letter, written by Gary Ruskin, who heads Commercial Alert, a Washington-based advocacy group, and Allen D. Kanner, a clinical psychologist at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, Calif., was sent to the association's president late last month. It urges the association to issue a formal denunciation of the use of psychological techniques in marketing and advertising to children, and asks for amendments to the association's code of ethics that would address the issue.

The letter, which was signed by 60 psychologists and other professionals with affiliations ranging from Sonoma State University to Harvard Medical School, also calls for ''an ongoing campaign to probe, review and confront the use of psychological research in advertising and marketing to children,'' which would include promoting strategies to shield children from ''commercial manipulation and exploitation'' by psychologists.

''Regrettably, a large gap has arisen between A.P.A.'s mission and the drift of the profession into helping corporations influence children for the purpose of selling products to them,'' the letter stated.

A spokeswoman for the association said the matter had been referred to its internal board on children, youth and family issues, and that the board was scheduled to meet in March.*

''Certainly there's no mention of the issue in our code of conduct,'' said the spokeswoman, Rhea K. Farberman, adding that the points raised in the letter had not been brought before the association before.

Dr. Kanner said he wrote the letter after becoming concerned, through his own conversations with children and teen-age patients, that they were, as a group, blatantly materialistic. ''I'll ask kids what they want to do when they grow up, and lots of times they'll tell me, 'Make money,' '' he said.

As for psychologists' role in that, he said research conducted at the university level was frequently deployed in developing commercials and other pitches to children. Since the stated mission of the American Psychological Association is ''to improve the condition of both the individual and society,'' he concluded that permitting research to be used in advertising to children presented a conflict.

''They are taking this very sophisticated understanding of children's relationships and what they respond to, and then really tailoring it to the advertisement and refining it,'' he said. ''There's no indication that it's helping kids with their relationships at all, but rather that it's manipulating them.''

Timothy J. Kasser, an associate professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., who signed the letter, said he did so because he saw ''a great deal of collusion between some members of psychology and marketing, advertising and entrepreneurial firms that are working together to try to understand how best to sell things to kids.''

Dr. Kasser said his research with a colleague, Richard Ryan of the University of Rochester, had concluded that people who value goals like money, fame and beauty are not only more depressed than others, but also report more behavioral problems and physical discomfort, as well as scoring lower on measures of vitality and self-actualization.

For children, the consequences can be similarly damaging, Dr. Kasser said. ''When advertisers are using psychological principles to sell products to children, they are not only selling that product, but they are also selling a larger value system that says making money and using your money for the purchase of material things will make you happy,'' he said. ''That's what is really behind almost every commercial message, that this product will make you feel happy, or loved, or safe and secure. My feeling is that it is manipulation to use children's needs to get them to buy these products.''

Not every psychologist feels the same way. ''The whole point is, if you're going to market to kids, do it responsibly and there are a whole lot of opportunities to make a positive difference,'' said Dan S. Acuff, who holds a doctorate in psychology and runs a company called Youth Market Systems Consulting in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Dr. Acuff, who called the goals stated in the letter ''anti-free enterprise,'' published a book titled ''What Kids Buy and Why'' in 1997 that offers insights into how to create a successful children's product. Included are discussions of neocortical development, in which children start to rely more on intellect, logic and reasoning and less on fantasy for their decision making. That, Dr. Acuff notes, in italics, ''has critical implications for product and program development as well as marketing and advertising to kids in the 8-through-12 age range.''

But there is a line psychologists should draw, he added this week. ''We turn down opportunities that would be damaging to kids,'' he said, ''like toys with serious weapons in them -- guns, bombs, rifles and things like that.'' Fantasy weapons, like those carried by He-Man and Star Wars figures, were acceptable to him, he added, but those based on ''modern technological weapons'' were not.

Ms. Farberman, the association's spokeswoman, said psychological techniques were also being used for ''socially redeeming issues,'' like advertising campaigns to urge people not to drink and drive. ''It's important not to lose sight of that,'' she said.

Julie A. Halpin, the chief executive of Geppetto Group, which specializes in children's advertising, said psychologists were important in helping her company understand children and their capabilities. ''For example, we learned that 6- and 7-year-olds don't understand double-entendres,'' she said. ''They are simply trying to learn one meaning of a word at that age. So advertising copy that uses double-entendres as a clever device would not be appropriate, or effective. It's things like that that help us do the best job we can do.''

Still, Dr. Kasser raised a question: ''Maybe we're helping the economy, but is that our mission as a discipline?''

* As of January 2006, Mr. Ruskin has received no reply from the APA.