'I Think It's Pretty Good, But Did You Hear What He Said?': Hearing Word-of-Mouth During a Consumption Episode

Abstract

It is well established that consumers often incorporate the opinions of other consumers, known as word-of-mouth (WOM), when forming an evaluation of a product or service. However, little is known about how evaluations are changed by WOM, which consumers are most likely to be influenced, and whether the change in evaluation will affect future decisions. We hypothesize that any of three components of an overall evaluation can be changed by WOM, namely belief about attribute delivery, the desired or ideal level of the attribute, and the importance of the attribute. Using WOM messages, we demonstrate that the three components shift in the direction of the messages. Further, we show that WOM has the greatest effect when consumers that are more uncertain about their initial attribute judgements, as identified by the range they indicate around the point-estimate judgement, are exposed to WOM that disconfirms their estimate. We also find, in accordance with dissonance theory, that larger changes in attitude after accepting a WOM message are accompanied by higher attitude-purchase intention correlations.