Do Others Influence What We Say? The Impact of Interpersonal Closeness on Word-of-Mouth Valence

A great deal of research in word-of-mouth (WOM) has aimed to understand whether consumers are more likely to share positive or negative information (Brown & Reingen 1987; Herr, Kardes, & Kim 1991). While some scholars have shown negative can trump positive WOM (e.g., Kamins, Folkes, & Pernes 1997), others have found positive WOM to prevail (e.g., East, Hammond, &Wright 2007). Yet, little is known about when consumers are more likely to share positive versus negative WOM. This research explores the role of interpersonal closeness as one factor that can influence consumers’ tendency to share positive versus negative information. By interpersonal closeness, we refer to the perceived psychological proximity between two individuals (Gunia, Sivanathan, & Galinsky 2009; Miller, Downs, & Prentice 1998). Such perceived proximity can stem from social similarity (Latanè et al. 1995), emotional closeness (i.e., tie strength; Gunia et al. 2009), or even spatial and temporal proximity (Liberman, Trope & Stephan 2007). For instance, the more two people have strong ties, occupy similar roles in society or share particular physical or physiological traits, the higher their interpersonal closeness.