Communication‐based Attribute Inference

Abstract

Consumers often make inferences about an unknown attribute of a target (e.g., product quality) from a known attribute (e.g., product price). Prior research suggests that such inferences are based on consumers' beliefs of interattribute correlations—the higher the value is on attribute A, the higher or lower the value will be on attribute B. The present research demonstrates that attribute inference can be made in the absence of such interattribute correlations if the information of the known attribute is acquired through communication. Across three studies, I find that information receivers can infer the communicator's overall attitude toward a target from her act of conveying her judgment of a key attribute of the target, from which they further infer about the other attributes, even if these attributes are believed to be uncorrelated with the communicated attribute. Supporting this inference process, I show that receivers' attribute judgments are mediated by their inferred overall attitude of the communicator (Study 1) and are unaffected when the communication does not possibly reflect the communicator's overall attitude (Studies 2 & 3). These findings highlight the unique role of communicated information, as compared to consumer's prior knowledge, in consumer inference and word of mouth.