Open AccessWhen Consistency Matters: The Effect of Valence Consistency on Review Helpfulness
Author(s) -
Quaschning Simon,
Pandelaere Mario,
Vermeir Iris
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/jcc4.12106
Subject(s) - helpfulness , valence (chemistry) , attribution , consistency (knowledge bases) , psychology , emotional valence , social psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , computer science , artificial intelligence , chemistry , psychiatry , organic chemistry
When evaluating the helpfulness of online reviews, review valence is a particularly relevant factor. This research argues that the influence of review valence is highly dependent on its consistency with the valence of other available reviews. Using both field and experimental data, this paper show that consistent reviews are perceived as more helpful than inconsistent reviews, independent of them being positive or negative. Experiments show that this valence consistency effect is driven by causal attributions, such that consistent reviews are more likely to be attributed to the actual product experience, while inconsistent reviews are more likely to be attributed to some reviewer idiosyncrasy. Supporting the attribution theory framework, reviewer expertise moderates the effect of consumers' causal attributions on review helpfulness.