Third-person effect comparison between US and Chinese social networking website users: implications for online marketing and word-of-mouth communication

Abstract

This study employs a framework of third-person effect to understand how users perceive the effect of SNWs, with an attempt to uncover the important indirect influence of SNWs. The findings may contribute to consumer psychology, and be relevant to practitioners who are interested in targeting young consumers via SNWs. Furthermore, this study compared the framework in two contrasting cultural contexts – the USA and China. The results provided empirical evidence to previous studies' theoretical assumption that the third-person effect is less pronounced in a typical collectivistic culture.