A long‐term archival analysis of social influence on online wine evaluations: Effects of consensus and expertise

Abstract

When forming opinions, people often rely on the behaviours and beliefs of others; this phenomenon has been understood by social psychologists as ‘social influence’. Online evaluations of goods provide a naturalistic context in which to investigate social influence. We collected information from 20,397 notes about 209 wines posted on a wine social networking site over the course of 10 years to examine the social influence on wine evaluations. Our analyses provide evidence for both normative and informational social influence on online wine evaluations. However, normative influence outweighs the effect of judgements made by experts. The influence of prior evaluations is strongest for the first few individuals who post their notes, and social influence increases as a function of source uniformity. Furthermore, expert members' evaluations are not more influential than other individuals' evaluations. Our results provide evidence for significant effects of social influence in an applied setting, impacting wine consumers that are exposed to the opinions of others, and have implications for how goods are advertised online. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

The extent of “deceptive” advertising by wine retailers: caveat venditor

“…This has been shown to have a substantial impact on the prices of those wines (Bazen et al , 2023). However, the proliferation of consumer reviews could lend itself to groupthink; wine review websites tend toward normative consensuses that could unduly influence other consumers’ opinions on the quality of certain wines (Gokcekus et al , 2023).…”

“…Psychological factors, such as motivations, perceptions and attitudes, play a significant role in shaping preferences (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010). Social and cultural factors, including reference groups, family and societal norms, can exert both direct and indirect influences (Bazen et al, 2023;Bearden and Etzel, 1982;Gokcekus et al, 2023;Shukla, 2011). Economic factors, such as income and price sensitivity, influence affordability and The extent of "deceptive" advertising choice (Chandon et al, 2009;Varian, 1989).…”

From Friends to Feedback: Effect of Social Influence on Mobile Shopping in the Post-COVID Era

“…Building on the normative social influence perspective, individuals are driven to make purchases that stem from the need to follow a group's or society's rules and norms. In the context of online shopping, customers may continuously consult their friends or reference groups to understand socially acceptable behavior and seek approval [13]. Specifically, we aim to explore how positive normative social influence affects the intention to repurchase in the mobile shopping context.…”