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From Rumors to Facts, and Facts to Rumors: The Role of Certainty Decay in Consumer Communications

Author

Listed:
  • David Dubois

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Derek D. Rucker

    (Kellogg [Northwestern] - Kellogg School of Management [Northwestern University, Evanston] - Northwestern University [Evanston])

  • Zakary L. Tormala

    (Stanford Graduate School of Business [Stanford])

Abstract

How does a rumor come to be believed as a fact as it spreads across a chain of consumers? This research proposes that because consumers' certainty about their beliefs (e.g., attitudes, opinions) is less salient than the beliefs themselves, certainty information is more susceptible to being lost in communication. Consistent with this idea, the current studies reveal that though consumers transmit their core beliefs when they communicate with one another, they often fail to transmit their certainty or uncertainty about those beliefs. Thus, a belief originally associated with high uncertainty (certainty) tends to lose this uncertainty (certainty) across communications. The authors demonstrate that increasing the salience of consumers' uncertainty/certainty when communicating or receiving information can improve uncertainty/certainty communication, and they investigate the consequences for rumor management and word-of-mouth communications.

Suggested Citation

  • David Dubois & Derek D. Rucker & Zakary L. Tormala, 2011. "From Rumors to Facts, and Facts to Rumors: The Role of Certainty Decay in Consumer Communications," Post-Print hal-00653241, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00653241
    DOI: 10.1509/jmr.09.0018
    as

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jie Chen & Wenjian Fan & Junlong Wei & Zunli Liu, 2022. "Effects of linguistic style on persuasiveness of word-of-mouth messages with anonymous vs. identifiable sources," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 593-605, December.
    2. Gavin L. Fox & Stephen J. Lind, 2020. "A framework for viral marketing replication and mutation," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 10(3), pages 206-222, December.
    3. Lunardo, Renaud & Alemany Oliver, Mathieu & Shepherd, Steven, 2023. "How believing in brand conspiracies shapes relationships with brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    4. Nath, Prithwiraj & Devlin, James & Reid, Veronica, 2018. "The effects of online reviews on service expectations: Do cultural value orientations matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 123-133.
    5. Sung Youl Jun & Tae Wook Ju & Hye Kyung Park & Jacob C. Lee & Tae Min Kim, 2023. "Information distortion in word-of-mouth retransmission: the effects of retransmitter intention and source expertise," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(5), pages 1848-1876, November.
    6. Pan, Cheng & Yang, Lu-Xing & Yang, Xiaofan & Wu, Yingbo & Tang, Yuan Yan, 2018. "An effective rumor-containing strategy," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 500(C), pages 80-91.

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