{"id":29892,"date":"2019-09-17T16:33:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T20:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=29892"},"modified":"2019-09-09T18:18:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T22:18:46","slug":"study-points-to-the-power-of-word-of-mouth-in-social-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2019\/09\/study-points-to-the-power-of-word-of-mouth-in-social-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Study points to the power of word-of-mouth in social learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences press release:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, UCLA and the University of Texas published new research in the INFORMS journal\u00a0<em>Marketing Science<\/em>\u00a0(Editor&#8217;s note: The source of this research is INFORMS), that reveals the <strong>power of word-of-mouth in social learning<\/strong>, even when compared to the power of following the example of someone we trust or admire. The same research found, however, that <strong>both word-of-mouth and following someone else&#8217;s lead are two of the most powerful dynamics in influencing others through social learning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The study to be published in an upcoming edition of the INFORMS journal\u00a0<strong><em>Marketing Science<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is titled &#8220;Word of Mouth, Observed Adoptions, and Anime-Watching Decisions: The Role of the Personal vs. the Community Network,&#8221; and is authored by Mina Ameri of the University of Pittsburgh&#8217;s Katz Graduate School of Business; Elisabeth Honka of the Anderson School of Management at UCLA; and Ying Xie of the University of Texas at Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>For empirical analysis, the researchers studied an online anime (Japanese cartoon) platform called MyAnimeList.net. This contained individual-level data on users&#8217; friendship networks, product adoptions, forum posts and ratings on anime series. The website serves as a gathering place for anime fans to share their enthusiasm and exchange opinions about anime series.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers specifically explored how users responded to word-of-mouth dynamics and the anime watching decisions of other users based on observational data. They called the latter dynamic &#8220;observed adoptions.&#8221; They further distinguish between these dynamics at two network levels: those from their own personal friends (personal network) and those from all other members of the community (community network).<\/p>\n<p>They found that word-of-mouth referrals from the community network is the largest driver among the social learning forces they studied. And while word-of -mouth was more powerful than observed adoptions, both factors are significant in influencing social learning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While both word-of-mouth and observed adoptions are highly influential in affecting a person&#8217;s social learning, our results show that each provide unique and different information that individuals use in their decision-making,&#8221; said Ameri. &#8220;Ultimately, we found that a person&#8217;s community network is the primary source of information driving anime watching decisions and behaviors.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences press release: Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, UCLA and the University of Texas published new research in the INFORMS&#8230; <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2019\/09\/study-points-to-the-power-of-word-of-mouth-in-social-learning\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[319,95],"tags":[306,127,28,19,364,12,98],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29892"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30117,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29892\/revisions\/30117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}