Sharing with Friends versus Strangers: How Interpersonal Closeness Influences Word-of-Mouth Valence

How does interpersonal closeness (IC)—the perceived psychological proximity between a sender and a recipient—influence word-of-mouth (WOM) valence? The current research proposes that high levels of IC tend to increase the negativity of WOM shared, whereas low levels of IC tend to increase the positivity of WOM shared. The authors hypothesize that this effect is due to low versus high levels of IC triggering distinct psychological motives. Low IC...