Consuming with Others: Social Influences on Moment‐to‐Moment and Retrospective Evaluations of an Experience

Two studies examine differences in participants’ moment‐to‐moment and retrospective evaluations of an experience depending on whether they are alone or in the presence of another person. Findings support our hypotheses that joint consumption leads to similar patterns or “coherence” in moment‐to‐mome...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of consumer research 2007-12, Vol.34 (4), p.506-524
Main Authors: Ramanathan, Suresh, McGill, Ann L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Consumer behavior
Consumption
Dyadic relations
Emotion
Emotional expression
Facial expressions
Modeling
Parametric models
Participant observation
Rapport
Smiles
Social impact
Studies
Time series
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Summary:Two studies examine differences in participants’ moment‐to‐moment and retrospective evaluations of an experience depending on whether they are alone or in the presence of another person. Findings support our hypotheses that joint consumption leads to similar patterns or “coherence” in moment‐to‐moment evaluations and that greater coherence leads to more positive retrospective evaluations. We trace the emergence of coherence to processes of mimicry and emotional contagion in experiment 1 by comparing evaluations for pairs of participants who could see each other’s expression with pairs who could not do so and in experiment 2 by coding participants’ facial expressions and head movements for direct evidence of contagion.
ISSN:0093-5301
1537-5277
DOI:10.1086/520074