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How Content Acquisition Method Affects Word of Mouth

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  • Zoey Chen
  • Jonah Berger

Abstract

People often share word of mouth with others, and such social sharing is an integral part of everyday life. But the content (e.g., stories, news, information) that people transmit can be acquired in different ways. Sometimes people find content themselves, and other times people receive content from others (e.g., via email or conversation). Might these different acquisition methods impact subsequent sharing, and if so, how? Six studies demonstrate that acquisition method can impact transmission through changing how content is processed. Compared to received content, people are more likely to associate found content with themselves, which decreases processing. Reduced processing, in turn, lowers sensitivity to diagnostic content characteristics (e.g., whether content is interesting or well written), which reduces these characteristics’ impact on sharing. Thus while receivers are more likely to share interesting (than boring) content, the difference is attenuated (and in some cases, disappeared) among finders. These findings deepen insights into the psychological drivers of word of mouth and shed light on how contextual factors, content characteristics, and the self interact to drive social transmission.

Suggested Citation

  • Zoey Chen & Jonah Berger, 2016. "How Content Acquisition Method Affects Word of Mouth," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(1), pages 86-102.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:43:y:2016:i:1:p:86-102.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucw001
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Bartschat, Maria & Cziehso, Gerrit & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2022. "Searching for word of mouth in the digital age: Determinants of consumers’ uses of face-to-face information, internet opinion sites, and social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 393-409.
    2. Sun, Xiaochi & Foscht, Thomas & Eisingerich, Andreas B., 2021. "Does educating customers create positive word of mouth?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Pieters, Constant, 2020. "Process analysis for marketing research," Other publications TiSEM 0855b910-aa32-42b8-91c2-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Xingyu Chen & Xing Li & Dai Yao & Zhimin Zhou, 2019. "Seeking the support of the silent majority: are lurking users valuable to UGC platforms?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 986-1004, November.
    5. Moritz Loock & Diane M. Phillips, 2020. "A Firm’s Financial Reputation vs. Sustainability Reputation: Do Consumers Really Care?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Ana Babić Rosario & Kristine Valck & Francesca Sotgiu, 2020. "Conceptualizing the electronic word-of-mouth process: What we know and need to know about eWOM creation, exposure, and evaluation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 422-448, May.
    7. Antonia Köster & Christian Matt & Thomas Hess, 2021. "Do All Roads Lead to Rome? Exploring the Relationship Between Social Referrals, Referral Propensity and Stickiness to Video-on-Demand Websites," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 63(4), pages 349-366, August.
    8. Kumar, Ashish, 2021. "An empirical examination of the effects of design elements of email newsletters on consumers’ email responses and their purchase," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    9. Jingjing Li & Nicole Montgomery & Reza Mousavi, 2022. "How a Brand's Social Activism Impacts Consumers' Brand Evaluations: The Role of Brand Relationship Norms," Papers 2210.10832, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    10. Yang, Zhihao & Wang, Desheng & Li, Tingting & Han, Jie, 2023. "Customizing a consumers’ story for you: The impact of protagonist geographical distance on willingness to share," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Hu, Miao & Chen, Jie & Chen, Qimei & He, Wei, 2020. "It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 19-28.
    12. Gallo, Iñigo & Townsend, Claudia & Alegre, Inés, 2019. "Experiential product framing and its influence on the creation of consumer reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 177-190.
    13. Roma, Paolo & Aloini, Davide, 2019. "How does brand-related user-generated content differ across social media? Evidence reloaded," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 322-339.

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