In the Company of Strangers: Social Influence from Anonymous Peers in Online Game Settings

Abstract Social interactions among consumers, especially in the consumption of digital goods, have become commonplace in an increasingly interconnected marketplace. As such, understanding the impact of such interactions on consumer behavior carries major academic and practitioner significance. This research focuses on an important, but under-researched aspect of social influence and the underlying mechanisms that may be driving peer effects. Using the context of a massive online peer-to-peer game, we estimate peer effects arising from anonymous peers. The findings suggest a robust and significant influence of anonymous peers on one’s own purchase behavior. Further, we find that peer effects arising from anonymous peers are largely driven by informational reasons as opposed to competitive concern even in a competitive online gaming context. That is, players rely on others’ purchase decisions despite anonymity; moreover, such influence is more pronounced for inexperienced players with little contextual knowledge. To demonstrate the effectiveness of leveraging the nature of peer influence in online game settings, we provide an illustrative example using an intervention simulation. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for marketing academia and practitioners in the video game industry.