T HE P INS THAT B IND : P REFERENCE A FFIRMATION , S OCIAL N ORMS , AND N ETWORKS ON P INTEREST Research - in - Progress Paper

My analysis sheds light on how “preference affirmation” – the act of visibly indicating that you share the same likes or dislikes as someone else – is correlated with friendship, product characteristics and social norms. Preference affirmation is an important consideration as marketers seek to promote their products and leverage the visibility of consumer preferences. This research-in-progress indicates that others’ willingness to affirm their friends’ preferences is related to social expectations and product characteristics. Using Pinterest data from April 2012, my analysis uncovers negative correlations between preference affirmation and social norm breaches. Furthermore, in some cases, users with higher degrees are correlated with lower preference affirmation by others. Thus, the relationships between preference affirmation, social expectations, and users’ ego network in an “open” social network may be more nuanced and deserves additional scrutiny.