The Effects of Social Class and Perceived Risk on Consumer Information Search

The interaction between social class and perceived risk on the way that consumers use various sources of information is examined in this article. The conclusions reached here suggest that perceived risk explains a great deal about the way that information is acquired and that social class explains relatively little. The results of the study indicate that marketing managers may well be able to improve the effectiveness of their budgets by reexamining the way they use newspapers and word‐of‐mouth communications.