Audience Size in Survey
1
Broadcasting and Narrowcasting: How Audience Size Impacts What People Share
ALIXANDRA BARASCH JONAH BERGER*
* Alixandra Barasch (abarasch@wharton.upenn.edu) is a doctoral student and Jonah Berger (jberger@wharton.upenn.edu) is the James G. Campbell Jr. Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. The authors thank Ezgi Akpinar, Amit Bhattacharjee, Cindy Chan, Zoey Chen and Deborah Small for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
2 CONTRIBUTION STATEMENT How does the communication audience impact what people talk about and share? Research has mainly considered audience type (i.e., tie strength), but no work has considered how mere audience size might impact what people share. Five studies demonstrate how broadcasting (communicating with a large group) and narrowcasting (communicating with one person) alter sharer focus and influence what people pass on. Broadcasting encourages people to share selfpresentational content because it boosts self-focus, while narrowcasting encourages people to share useful content because it boosts other-focus. This work sheds light on the drivers of wordof-mouth and interpersonal communication, and provides preliminary insight into when the sender versus the receiver plays a relatively larger role in what people share.
ABSTRACT Does the mere number of people with whom consumers communicate impact what they talk about and share? Five studies demonstrate that broadcasting (i.e., communicating with a large group) encourages people to share self-presentational content, while narrowcasting (i.e., communicating with one person) encourages people to share content that is useful to the message recipient. These effects are driven by sharer focus. Broadcasting encourages self-focus, which leads people to share self-presentational content, whereas narrowcasting encourages other-focus, which leads people to share useful content. These findings are
Broadcasting and Narrowcasting: How Audience Size Impacts What People Share
ALIXANDRA BARASCH JONAH BERGER*
* Alixandra Barasch (abarasch@wharton.upenn.edu) is a doctoral student and Jonah Berger (jberger@wharton.upenn.edu) is the James G. Campbell Jr. Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. The authors thank Ezgi Akpinar, Amit Bhattacharjee, Cindy Chan, Zoey Chen and Deborah Small for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
2 CONTRIBUTION STATEMENT How does the communication audience impact what people talk about and share? Research has mainly considered audience type (i.e., tie strength), but no work has considered how mere audience size might impact what people share. Five studies demonstrate how broadcasting (communicating with a large group) and narrowcasting (communicating with one person) alter sharer focus and influence what people pass on. Broadcasting encourages people to share selfpresentational content because it boosts self-focus, while narrowcasting encourages people to share useful content because it boosts other-focus. This work sheds light on the drivers of wordof-mouth and interpersonal communication, and provides preliminary insight into when the sender versus the receiver plays a relatively larger role in what people share.
ABSTRACT Does the mere number of people with whom consumers communicate impact what they talk about and share? Five studies demonstrate that broadcasting (i.e., communicating with a large group) encourages people to share self-presentational content, while narrowcasting (i.e., communicating with one person) encourages people to share content that is useful to the message recipient. These effects are driven by sharer focus. Broadcasting encourages self-focus, which leads people to share self-presentational content, whereas narrowcasting encourages other-focus, which leads people to share useful content. These findings are