Do people prefer to pass along good or bad news? valence and relevance of news as predictors of transmission propensity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that exagger-atedly had news may propagate in the marketplace of ideas. Three studies investigate whether people prefer to pass along pieces of bad news or good news that are equated for “surprisingness. ” People typically prefer to pass along central rather than extreme information (i.e., news that is less surprising rather than more sur-prising). However, when confronted with extreme in-formation, the results support a preference for congru-ence, that is, people prefer to pass along news that is congruent with the emotional valence of the domain in question. This means that in emotionally negative domains, contrary to some theoretical predictions, people are willing to pass along bad news even when it is exaggeratedly bad. At the same time, however, people transmit exaggeratedly good news in emotion. ally positive domains. The general discussion indi-cates how these results may inform research on word of mouth for consumer products and social relations in organizations. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc. 50,000 children are abducted by strangers each year. Sen. Paul Simon cited this figure in Congress in 1983, and it was widely used for years. But a 1988 Justice Department study found fewer than 5,000 stranger abductions that year. Newsweek, July 25, 1994 Homeless advocates have estimated 2 million to 3 million people have been homeless at some time during the previous year. In March 1990 the Census Bureau sent 15,000 census takers out one night to count the homeless. They found 230,000