The Meme Economy: How Internet Memes Impact Consumption Nicole Kim, University of Maryland, USA Jared Joseph Watson, New York University, USA
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ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802 The Meme Economy: How Internet Memes Impact Consumption Nicole Kim, University of Maryland, USA Jared Joseph Watson, New York University, USA Viewing and sharing internet ‘memes’ is a new way in which consumers interact with each other online. This research demonstrates that internet memes (vs. non-memes) can serve to increase consumption attitudes toward a target content employed in the meme. Four studies show that when consumers encounter memes, they infer that the target content in the meme has become viral, which further invokes FOMO (i.e., fear of missing out), increasing their consumption intentions. [to cite]: Nicole Kim and Jared Joseph Watson (2020) ,"The Meme Economy: How Internet Memes Impact Consumption", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 48, eds. Jennifer Argo, Tina M. Lowrey, and Hope Jensen Schau, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 896-901. [url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/2661380/volumes/v48/NA-48 [copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Sharing and Consumer Experience: How Does Different Forms of Sharing Affect Consumer Evaluations of Experience Chairs: Der-Wei Huang, Indiana University, USA Shanker Krishnan, Indiana University, USA Paper #1: The Paradox of Social Interaction in the Sharing on social media. The authors’ findings show that when consumers see Economy photos taken from the actor’s perspective (vs. observer’s perspec- Dafna Goor, Harvard University, USA tive), consumers generate more favorable attitude toward the experi- Amir Grinstein, Northeastern University, USA ence of an event, and they are more likely to share this experience Nailya Ordabayeva, Boston College, USA on social media. Meike H. Morren, Vrije University, The Netherlands The fourth paper demonstrates that the anticipated reaction from the audience when sharing online has an important impact on Paper #2: The Meme Economy: How Internet Memes Impact experience enjoyment. Moving away from the belief that known oth- Consumption ers don’t judge as harshly as unknown others, the paper shows that Nicole Kim, University of Maryland, USA when consumers share pictures of indulgence foods online, they an- Jared Watson, New York University, USA ticipate less positive judgements from people they know (vs. mostly Paper #3: Let Me See How I Look: How Visual Perspective don’t know) and enjoy less the food after sharing the picture. Affects Consumer Experience and Sharing Behaviors Together these four papers examine how consumers behave in Der-Wei Huang, Indiana University, USA a sharing context, whether it being offline (in a sharing economy) or Shanker Krishnan, Indiana University, USA online (on social media), and investigate the underlying mechanisms. Paper #4: Indulging Online: A Moral Dilemma The fours papers contribute to the literature in sharing economy, Marie Ozanne, Cornell University, USA emotions, and consumer decisions and judgement. Anna Mattila, Pennsylvania State University, USA The Paradox of Social Interaction in the Sharing SESSION OVERVIEW Economy Sharing is an important part of consumers’ consumption expe- riences and decision-making. Interestingly, there are different ways EXTENDED ABSTRACT in which consumers can share. Consumers may share resources that The sharing economy has been rising in the past decade. Its key are intangible, such as information and experiences, or consumers sectors are expected to grow in revenue from $15 billion in 2014 to may share products and physical goods, such as taxi rides and hos- $335 billion in 2025 (PwC 2015). However, little is known about us- tels. Existing research has looked at how sharing experiences could ers’ experience on peer-to-peer platforms in the sharing economy or affect consumer memories, enjoyment, and perceptions of morality the relationship between the sharing economy and wellbeing (Eck- (e.g., Barasch, Zauberman, and Diehl, 2018; Campbell and Wint- hardt et al. 2019). Rather, prior research focused on the economic erich, 2018; Tamir et al., 2018). Advancing the existing findings, in value of the sharing economy (Eckhardt and Bardhi 2015; Neoh et the current session, we bring together four papers that examine how al. 2017). Yet, our pilot study (N=148, Mturk) shows that consum- consumer experiences and decision-making are influenced by differ- ers’ social, in addition to financial, motivations to enter the sharing ent modes of sharing. economy are greater than other motivations (e.g., environmental, The first paper examines how sharing products and services af- cultural; p’s<.001; see also Milanova and Maas 2017). Furthermore, fects consumer experience in a shared economy. In particular, the our analysis of ads of ten leading sharing economy brands (N=79, authors show that despite the rising demand for the sharing economy broadcasted between 2016-2018) reveals that companies capitalize that is also driven by social motivation, consumers rate their expe- on social drivers (68.4% of the ads used social interaction narratives rience in the sharing economy lower, compared to the traditional and 89.9% community narratives). economy (e.g., hostel vs. Airbnb, taxi vs. uber, restaurant vs. shared Building on these preliminary findings on the substantial role of dining). This paper also demonstrates that such sharing is caused by social interaction in the sharing economy, we suggest that consump- social anxiety and increase in awareness to social interactions. tion experiences in the sharing economy may elicit greater social The second paper examines a novel mode, internet ‘memes,’ awareness in consumers than parallel experiences in the traditional that consumers use to share information on social media. Specifi- economy (e.g., Uber vs. taxi, Airbnb vs. hostel, Eatwith vs. restau- cally, the authors examine how consumers make inferences about rant). Consequently, focus on social interaction may paradoxically a target content referenced in a meme, and that it can impact subse- decrease consumer satisfaction and even translate into lower ratings. quent consumption decisions. Specifically, memes, compared to oth- Five studies use mixed methodologies, combining lab experi- er social media posts in non-meme format, can increase consumption ments and archival data from a leading sharing economy company, attitudes toward the target content. This is because the use of memes to test our predictions. increase the perception that the target content has gone viral, invok- Study 1 tested the effect of the sharing (vs. traditional) economy ing consumers’ FOMO (i.e., fear of missing out), thereby increasing on consumer satisfaction. Participants (N=167, Mage=33.6, 38% fe- consumption intentions. male, MTurk) imagined they went on a one-week trip. In the shar- The third and fourth papers investigate how sharing contexts ing (vs. traditional) economy condition, they imagined staying at an or sharing behavior affect the consumption experience and some in- Airbnb (vs. YMCA) apartment, where they got a private room but vestigate when we are more likely to share. The third paper dem- shared house amenities with other people. Participants rated the shar- onstrates how visual perspective of photos of an experience affect ing economy experience as less satisfying (M=3.35) than the tradi- consumer attitude toward an experience, and their sharing behavior tional economy experience (M=3.90, p=.026). Next, we investigate the role of social interaction. Advances in Consumer Research 896 Volume 48, ©2020 Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 48) / 897 First, an exploratory study (N=211, Mage=37.38, 32.5% female, portantly, reduced social interaction increased satisfaction and well- Mturk) revealed that, across product categories (transportation, ac- being compared to the shared and increased greater social interaction commodation, dinning, master class, and wine tasting), consumers conditions (p’s < .043) to the level of the control condition (p=.176). perceive the sharing (vs. traditional) economy as involving greater Our work answers an urgent call for research on the nature and social interaction (t(210)=5.76, p<.001) and stress (t(210)=5.04, role of the social environment in the sharing economy and its impact p<.001). However, the P2P (sharing) vs. traditional providers’ levels on consumer wellbeing (Eckhardt et al. 2019), and adds useful in- of knowledge and expertise were not perceived to be significantly sights to marketing practice. It also contributes to sociology theories different t( (210)=1.60, p=.11). on group dynamics by documenting a unique setting of initiated so- Study 2 examined the effect in a setting with social appeal – cial interactions in an economic context and the unexplored impact shared dining, and investigated the underlying psychological pro- of group size. cess. Undergraduate students (N=160, Mage=19.9, 49% female) imagined going to dinner with a friend in a shared dining event (vs. The Meme Economy: How Internet Memes Impact a restaurant) called EatOut in a nearby city. At the venue there was Consumption a chef who served traditional Italian food and ten diners engaged in conversations. The results revealed that the sharing economy EXTENDED ABSTRACT decreased satisfaction (M=4.34) and overall well-being