Follow the Herd? Group Opinions (Do Not) Matter for Collectivists

Abstract

An individual’s self-orientation in terms of individualism or collectivism influences his or her judgments and evaluations. In particular, collectivists likely follow the group opinion, thus exhibiting a heuristic processing bias in persuasion by using consensus information as a heuristic cue. Two studies test this hypothesis. As expected, individualists processed the persuasive message systematically regardless of consensus. Meanwhile, collectivists processed it heuristically when there was consensus, but systematically when there was no consensus, against the expected hypothesis. Possible explanations are offered, along with a discussion of avenues for future research and implications for marketing practice.