EXPRESS: The Influential Solo Consumer: When Engaging in Activities Alone (vs. Accompanied) Increases the Impact of Recommendations

Information about the social context of consumption is often seen on review websites or social media when consumers sharing word-of-mouth about an experience indicate whether they engaged in the activity solo or with companions. Across a secondary dataset scraped from Tripadvisor.com, five main experiments, and one supplemental experiment, the current research finds that individuals who engage in consumption activities alone can be a more influential source of recommendations than people who engage in these same activities with others. The results support an attribution-based process, such that people are more likely to attribute a solo (vs. accompanied) review to the quality of the activity itself, leading the solo (vs. accompanied) person’s review to be particularly influential. Further, the studies test the theorizing that perceived interest on the part of the solo (vs. accompanied) consumer leads to the stronger attribution to quality, and therefore that additional cues to intrinsic interest (e.g., presence of a cue to intrinsic or extrinsic motivation) attenuate the influence of solo (vs. accompanied) word-of-mouth. This work has theoretical and managerial relevance for those who seek to understand how the social context of consumption influences other consumers.