סמינר בשיווק

Kim Livnat from University of Haifa

How do consumers interpret the absence of word of mouth in social contexts? Here we distinguish between three possibilities: (i) consumers project the opinions of the speakers in a conversation onto nonspeakers (generalization), (ii) consumers have another usual or default naïve theory that they use to explain it across multiple contexts (default naïve theory); and (iii) consumers project their own opinions onto nonspeakers (silence as mirror). Four studies examine which pattern best explains consumer inferences when all three possibilities are present in the same context simultaneously. Subsequent studies tested the generality and robustness of the effect, examined the moderating role of opinion base rate knowledge in producing it, and showed that it extends from inferences about the valence of an opinion, i.e., whether people feel positively or negatively about an issue, to inferences about the motivations behind what drove it in the first place. Implications for research on word of mouth, social norms, and omission neglect are discussed.