Article
Informational Influence and the Ambiguity of Product Experience: Order Effects on the Weighting of Evidence
Department of Marketing, University of Florida, Gainesville
Journal of Consumer Psychology (Impact Factor: 1.71). 12/1998; 7(1):79-99. DOI: 10.1207/s15327663jcp0701_04 | Get notified about updates to this publication Follow publication |
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- "When people are uncertain how to behave in a given situation, they will tend to look to others around them to help them decide (Sherif, 1936; Wooten & Reed, 1998). If one is uncertain which response is appropriate in a social situation, and others around you have already made their choices, presumably they have more information or experience than you do in those circumstances. "
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ABSTRACT: Consumer psychologists have devoted a great deal of research to understanding human social influence processes. Research on social influence could be enriched by incorporating several evolutionary principles, and viewing social influence processes through an adaptationist lens. Our central argument is that different social relationships are associated with different influence goals; one wants different things from a parent, a mate, a friend, an underling, a superior, and an out-group stranger. Therefore influence tactics should vary in success depending on the nature of the relationship between the target and the agent of influence. We consider different influence goals associated with different domains of social life and examine a set of six proven principles of social influence from this evolutionary perspective. We also consider how an evolutionary approach offers some new insights into why and when these principles of social influence will be differentially effective. -
- "More specifically, word of mouth did not have a stronger effect on organizational attractiveness when it was presented prior to recruitment advertising rather than after. Although we did not observe the hypothesized primacy effect, we did find some evidence for recency effects (Haugtvedt & Wegener, 1994; Wooten & Reed, 1998). First, organizational attractiveness was higher when recruitment advertising was presented after word of mouth. "
Article: Social Influences on Organizational Attractiveness: Investigating If and When Word of Mouth Matters
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ABSTRACT: Previous recruitment studies have treated potential applicants as individual decision makers, neglecting informational social influences on organizational attractiveness. The present study investigated if and under what conditions word-of-mouth communication matters as a recruitment source. Results (N = 171) indicated that word of mouth had a strong impact on organizational attractiveness, and negative word of mouth interfered with recruitment advertising effects. Word of mouth from a strong tie was perceived as more credible and had a more positive effect on organizational attractiveness. For potential applicants high in self-monitoring, word of mouth had a stronger effect when presented after recruitment advertising. Finally, the effect of word of mouth on organizational attractiveness was partially mediated by the perceived credibility of recruitment advertising. -
- "As consumers face conflicting or ambiguous information for their purchasing decisions , they need objective information to resolve the ambiguity. Wooten and Reed (1998) find that others' opinions about product quality are more likely to influence consumers' product evaluations when the consumers lack clear, direct experience with the product. Online feedback systems, such as consumer ratings about a product, may be employed to provide third-party opinions, but ratings are only an aggregation of subjective evaluations. "
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ABSTRACT: Price dispersion reflects the differences in prices for identical products. While in physical markets such dispersion is prevalent due to high search costs, many researchers argue that search costs and price dispersion will be much lower in electronic markets (e-markets). Empirical evidence does not support this contention, and researchers have studied search costs, market factors, and service-quality factors to explain this dispersion. Previous research has largely assumed that more information is better. By ignoring the dark side of information, we argue that only a partial understanding of price dispersion is possible. In this article, information overload and equivocality are studied as two dark attributes of information that lead sellers to different pricing decisions in e-markets. Hypotheses relating these attributes to price dispersion are supported through analysis of 161 product markets. This work opens up new avenues in the study of e-markets and discusses the implications of these findings for research and practice on consumer and seller decisions.
