Does the number of people with whom someone communicates influence what
he or she discusses and shares? Six studies demonstrate that compared
with narrowcasting (i.e., communicating with just one person),
broadcasting (i.e., communicating with multiple people) leads consumers
to avoid sharing content that makes them look bad. Narrowcasting,
however, encourages people to share content that is useful to the
message recipient. These effects are driven by communicators' focus of
attention. People naturally tend to focus on the self, but communicating
with just one person heightens other-focus, which leads communicators
to share less self-presenting content and more useful content. These
findings shed light on the drivers of word of mouth and provide insight
into when the communication sender (vs. receiver) plays a relatively
larger role in what people share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]