In the age of digital intelligence, the ease of access to information has prompted retailers to place more emphasis on customer engagement in online networks to build richer consumer experiences. Social density, a crucial atmospheric element of consumer experience, has transcended the boundaries of traditional physical spaces to become an easily retrievable and evaluable information dimension in online environments, profoundly influencing consumer decision-making processes. Based on this, this study aims to deeply analyze how consumers understand and recognize social density in the current era background, and then reveal their potential psychological processing mechanism. According to attribution theory, this research analyzes the online review data through machine learning, and combines two situational experiments to find that social density information and attribution patterns have interactive effects on consumers’ patronage intention. Specifically, high social density (vs. low social density) information increases consumer willingness to patronize when external attribution occurs. When internal attributions or no other informational cues are provided, high social density (vs. low social density) information will reduce consumers’ patronage intention. Perceived prominence mediates this process. These findings not only provide strategic guidance for companies in service processes and communication perspectives, but also expand academic discussions on social density.