The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context

Jiang, Lan; Hoegg, JoAndrea; Dahl, Darren W.; Chattopadhyay, Amitava

doi:10.1086/605364

Cited by 166 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Prior work shows that factors such as age and gender can indicate similarity with others, and that similarity leads to affiliative behavior (e.g., McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2001;Brown, Grzeskowiak, and Dev 2009;Naylor, Lamberton, and West 2012). For example, actual or inferred similarity between two people (e.g., a shared birthday) can enhance compliance with each other's requests (Burger et al 2004), make online reviews more persuasive (Naylor, Lamberton, and Norton 2011), and increase the perceived social connection between two individuals (Jiang, Hoegg, Dahl, and Chattopadhyay 2010). Taken together, this literature suggests that when a consumer contributes WOM after an individual who is personally similar to her, the consumer should affiliate with this individual.…”

Section: Behavioral and Linguistic Mimicrymentioning

confidence: 99%

She Said, She Said: Differential Interpersonal Similarities Predict Unique Linguistic Mimicry in Online Word of Mouth

Moore¹,

McFerran²

2017

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

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3This research examines the antecedents, causes, and consequences of linguistic mimicry, which assesses how closely individuals match others' word use, in online WOM. We examine mimicry of both linguistic style (how things are said) and content (what is said). To our knowledge, this research provides the first demonstration of unique linguistic mimicry, where consumers engaging in online WOM differentially mimic other posters' word use. Two experiments and one study using field data show that when consumers are personally similar to an individual who has previously posted (e.g., same gender), they mimic this individual's positive emotion and social word use. When consumers are similar in status to an individual who has previously posted (e.g., same forum ranking), they mimic this individual's cognitive and descriptive word use. This differential mimicry is driven by affiliation versus achievement goals, respectively, and affects consumers' engagement in online WOM in terms of posting incidence and volume.

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Section: Behavioral and Linguistic Mimicrymentioning

confidence: 99%

She Said, She Said: Differential Interpersonal Similarities Predict Unique Linguistic Mimicry in Online Word of Mouth

Moore¹,

McFerran²

2017

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

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“…Furthermore, we test our model in the context of online reviews, which are a major source of advice for today's consumers (Nielsen 2012) but do not provide an opportunity for continued social interaction, which is assumed in a liking-based explanation of the source-similarity effect (Jiang et al 2010).…”

Section: Overview Of Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To provide support for the connectedness-based explanation, prior research has used Lee and Robbins's (1995) Social Connectedness Scale to show that the effect of source similarity is stronger if people have a stronger need for connectedness (Jiang et al 2010). Here we measured participants' need for connectedness using the same scale.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Persuasiveness of Similar Others: The Role of Mentalizing and the Feeling of Certainty

Faraji-Rad¹,

Samuelsen

Warlop

2015

SSRN Journal

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“…For example, Walton and colleagues (2012) found that interactions with relational others that signal seemingly inconsequential shared characteristics such as birthdates or even membership in arbitrary groups, can lead to increases in individuals'' sense of connectedness-a phenomenon they refer to as "mere belonging". These interactions draw on research showing that knowledge of even incidental similarity can serve to tighten the relational connections between individuals (Burger et al, 2004;Jones et al, 2004;Jiang et al, 2010).…”

Section: Seeking To Belong At Work 12mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking to Belong: How the Words of Internal and External Beneficiaries Influence Performance

Green

Staats

2017

Proceedings

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In this paper, we examine how connecting to beneficiaries of one's work increases performance, and argue that beneficiaries internal to an organization (i.e., one's own colleague) can serve as an important source of motivation, even in jobs that -on the surface -may seem routine and low on potential impact. We suggest that this occurs because words of beneficiaries strengthen one's sense of belongingness, a key driver of human behavior. Employees, in fact, seek to belong-and seek to enhance their sense of belongingness in work settings. We conducted two studies using both field and laboratory data from different populations to investigate the psychological consequences and performance benefits of connecting to beneficiaries of one's work. In a longitudinal field experiment of fruit harvesters, we find that though beneficiary contact with the overall customer did not significantly improve productivity, contact with an internal beneficiary that made connectedness salient yielded a persistent increase in productivity relative to a control group. We validate this effect in the laboratory, and provide evidence that the effect is mediated by an enhanced sense of belongingness.

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The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context

Cited by 166 publications

References 40 publications

She Said, She Said: Differential Interpersonal Similarities Predict Unique Linguistic Mimicry in Online Word of Mouth

She Said, She Said: Differential Interpersonal Similarities Predict Unique Linguistic Mimicry in Online Word of Mouth

On the Persuasiveness of Similar Others: The Role of Mentalizing and the Feeling of Certainty

Seeking to Belong: How the Words of Internal and External Beneficiaries Influence Performance

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