SCP Las Vegas

During SCP 2025 in Las Vegas, my student Yongkun Liu will present joint work with myself and Chiara Longoni titled, “Seeing Is Not Believing: When Audio News Seems More Credible Than Written News.”

The presentation will be part of a special session, “How Modalities Shape Consumer Behavior” organized by Luca Cascio Rizzo. It will feature research by: Luca Cascio Rizzo, Jonah Berger, Matthew D. Rocklage, Burint Bevis, Juliana Schroeder, Michael Yeomans, Shwetha Mariadassou, Christopher Bechler, Jonathan Levav, Yongkun Liu, Kurt Munz, and Chiara Longoni.

Abstract

Modalities (i.e., speaking and writing) are a ubiquitous part of marketplace interactions. Consumers talk to (and text) friends, call (and email) customer service, and read (or listen) to information before making choices. Further, shifts in technology have made it easier to speak to devices (e.g., Alexa) or use voice-to-text to communicate.

But while the modality through which people communicate, or consider, information might seem incidental, might it actually have an important impact on consumer behavior?

Might speaking (rather than writing) influence how much certainty communicators express, and thus the impact of their communication? Does having conversations through speaking (vs. writing) affect interaction quality and how conversation partners are perceived? Might listening to (vs. reading) financial information affect consumer choice? And how does listening to (vs. reading) news impact how trustworthy the information seems?

This session provides insight into these and other questions. Using a variety of data sources, contexts, perspectives, and approaches, the session sheds light on how modalities shape what communicators communicate, and the choices consumers make.