Third-party Effects on Consumption Decisions of Electronic Digital Products

摘要

According to Davison (1983), the postulator of TPE, he found that people have the tendency to perceive the persuasive message exerting a greater effect on the others than on him or herself. In other words, the persuasive message will have the least impact on him or her (the first person), moderate impact on you (the second person) and the greatest impact on the others (the third person), hence the name the thirdpart effect or TPE. Third-part information does have an effect on people when making a consumption decision, the extent to which varies when the moderator—age changes; People of both age groups are rational when choosing durable and expensive product like digital camera, professional comments play a more important role when making a consumption decision. Comparatively, the younger group will tend to pay more attention to celebrity advertising rather than the older group. Accordingly, the older group will trust professional comments more than the younger group. Yet, the gap is slight.