What’s More Powerful, Word-of-Mouth or Following Someone Else’s Lead?
New Research Says it’s Word-of-Mouth
Key Takeaways:
- Researchers studied users of an online anime platform that provided individual-level data on users' friendship networks, anime watching behaviors, forum posts, and ratings.
- Both word-of-mouth and the example of others, (i.e., others' decisions of what to watch or following someone else's lead), are two of the most powerful sources in social learning.
- Word-of-mouth referrals from the platform community is more influential than following the example of a trusted or admired friend from your personal network or than watching popular hits among members of the platform community.
CATONSVILLE, MD, August 13, 2019 – Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, UCLA and the University of Texas published new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science (Editor's note: The source of this research is INFORMS), that reveals the power of word-of-mouth in social learning, even when compared to the power of following the example of someone we trust or admire. The same research found, however, that both word-of-mouth and following someone else's lead are two of the most powerful dynamics in influencing others through social learning.
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Ashley Smith
INFORMS
Catonsville MD
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