Contagious Likes and Dislikes:Neighborhood Effects in Attitudes and Preferences

We examine the influence of neighborhood effects on attitudes and preferences. Specifically, does exposure to the attitudes of others in a group influence one’s own attitudes and preferences? We show that neighborhood effects do emerge when one is exposed to group attitudes. More intriguingly, neighborhood effects also emerge for issues where one was never explicitly exposed to group attitudes. We suggest that this is due to the fact that exposure to some group attitudes allows individuals to make shrewd guesses about group attitudes on other issues that were never discussed. Further, these guesses bias one’s own attitudes.

Citation:

Jayati Sinha and Dhananjay Nayakankuppam (2009) ,"Contagious Likes and Dislikes:Neighborhood Effects in Attitudes and Preferences", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 600-601.