The Evolution of Cooperation and WOM-ographics
Here's a philosophical question for a Monday afternoon: why does word of mouth exist?
Human behaviors all evolve from some kind of need. They begin to be dressed up into various forms and traditions, but--at their core--they simply enable people to better deal with and succeed in their environment. So what's up with WOM? What does that do?
I think it stems from the human need to cooperate, which is based on the understanding that group survival is intertwined with (and therefore as important as) self-survival. It makes sense for one caveman to tell another caveman that a certain plant will make him sick; maybe one day, he'll return the favor.
So its with interest that I read this article in Panda's Thumb about the evolution of cooperation, which describes a computer modeling experiment which sought a better understandingo of cooperation.
The research is totally fascinating. I'll let you digest it all, but it outlines a number of distinct cooperating strategies, all of which are dependent on an individuals needs and (this is critical) group affiliation.
The potentials for WOM(M) are pretty remarkable. It's possible for us to begin thinking about consumer segmentation not only in terms of demo or psycho graphics, but potentially WOM-ographics. That is, sepcifcally trying to understand the conditions under which a particular person will share information about products.
