This research proposes that consumer
s often selectively communicate their
product knowledge with one
another in order to achieve
different interpersonal
goals or to meet situational demands; as
a consequence of this
selective message
construction process, the communicators
’ recollections of the product knowledge
tend to be realigned with the conten
ts of the communicated messages. To
provide empirical support
for this proposition, I employed a two-step, memory-
based experiment procedure and used in
terpersonal relationship strength as the
key investigating variable to exam
ine communicators’ selective message
construction behavior and its evaluativ
e consequences. Results showed that
participants communicated more nega
tive product information to a strong
relation audience and more positive inform
ation to a weak relation audience;
they were also more likely to negativ
ely interpret ambiguous information to a
strong relation audience.
After the communication, pa
rticipants in the strong
relation condition showed significantly decreased product evaluations.