2021 Volume 24 Pages 109-117
This study focused on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) sharers and examined the effect of cognition of audience group on what eWOM sharers share and how they feel. According to saying-is-believing research, eWOM sharers may tune messages to their receivers’ attitude when the receivers’ attitude is perceptible, and such tuning may bias eWOM sharers’ attitude for the topic (e.g., a product) toward the receivers’ attitude. An online experiment using the Danmaku platform was conducted to examine these consumptions. Eight-four undergraduate students in Beijing were recruited to participate the experiment, in which the entitativity level and the attitude toward an eWOM topic of their audience group were manipulated. The results showed that participants tune messages to the attitude of their audience group when they perceived the audience group with higher levels of entitativity. Furthermore, audience tuning did bias participants’ impression for the topic toward the attitude of their audience group. These findings suggest that whether to consider multiple receivers as a group affects the eWOM sharers’ review contents and attitude toward a product or service.
