TY - JOUR
T1 - To Switch or Not To Switch
T2 - Understanding Social Influence in Online Choices
AU - Zhu, Haiyi
AU - Huberman, Bernardo A.
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - The authors designed and ran an experiment to measure social influence in online recommender systems, specifically, how often people's choices are changed by others' recommendations when facing different levels of confirmation and conformity pressures. In this experiment, participants were first asked to provide their preference from pairs of items. They were then asked to make second choices about the same pairs with knowledge of other people's preferences. The results show that other people's opinions significantly sway people's own choices. The influence is stronger when people are required to make their second decision sometime later (22.4%) rather than immediately (14.1%). Moreover, people seem to be most likely to reverse their choices when facing a moderate, as opposed to large, number of opposing opinions. Finally, the time people spend making the first decision significantly predicts whether they will reverse their decisions later on, whereas demographics such as age and gender do not. These results have implications for consumer behavior research as well as online marketing strategies.
AB - The authors designed and ran an experiment to measure social influence in online recommender systems, specifically, how often people's choices are changed by others' recommendations when facing different levels of confirmation and conformity pressures. In this experiment, participants were first asked to provide their preference from pairs of items. They were then asked to make second choices about the same pairs with knowledge of other people's preferences. The results show that other people's opinions significantly sway people's own choices. The influence is stronger when people are required to make their second decision sometime later (22.4%) rather than immediately (14.1%). Moreover, people seem to be most likely to reverse their choices when facing a moderate, as opposed to large, number of opposing opinions. Finally, the time people spend making the first decision significantly predicts whether they will reverse their decisions later on, whereas demographics such as age and gender do not. These results have implications for consumer behavior research as well as online marketing strategies.
KW - conformity theory
KW - social influence
KW - social media and choices
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84906730405&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84906730405&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0002764214527089
DO - 10.1177/0002764214527089
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84906730405
SN - 0002-7642
VL - 58
SP - 1329
EP - 1344
JO - American Behavioral Scientist
JF - American Behavioral Scientist
IS - 10
ER -