Impact of the social distance on the transgressions between companies and consumers

ABSTRACTThis study seeks to contribute with the theories of transgression in relationships and social influence, by considering not only the dyadic relationship (consumer-company) but also other consumers that become aware of the transgression of the company. Such consumers are herein called third parties. The authors propose that the social distance between the third party and the victim of the transgression may influence the evaluation of the relationship between the company and the third party, even if the third party has not suffered the transgression. Two experiments were conducted, both with three conditions of social distance in the perspective of consumer transgression (victim vs. third party near the victim vs. third party distant from the victim). The results indicate that the impact of a transgression on the evaluation of the relationship is the same for the victim and for the near third party, but it is significantly smaller for the distant third party. It was found that this direct relation is mediated by the irritation emotion.