Are Bad Reviews Always Stronger Than Good? Asymmetric Negativity Bias in the Formation of Online Consumer Trust

Dezhi Yin*, Samuel Bond, Han Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference proceedingpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This research examines asymmetric negativity biases in the formation of consumer trust in an online environment. Drawing on prospect theory and social psychology literature, the authors propose that online consumers will exhibit more negative bias for information regarding sellers' integrity than for information regarding sellers' competence. Two experiments manipulated the dimension of seller behavior by presenting text reviews (Study 1) and ratings (Study 2) in a typical online word-of-mouth setting. As predicted, although negativity bias does impact trust formation in this setting, the magnitude of the bias depends on the dimension of seller behavior involved: consumers exhibit much more bias toward information regarding sellers' integrity than toward information regarding sellers' competence. The authors also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationICIS 2010 Proceedings
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9780615418988
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2010
Event31st International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2010: Gateway to the Future - Saint Louis, United States
Duration: 12 Dec 201015 Dec 2010
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2010_submissions/

Publication series

NameInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS

Conference

Conference31st International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySaint Louis
Period12/12/1015/12/10
Internet address

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Information Systems

User-Defined Keywords

  • Competence
  • Consumer decision-making
  • Feedback mechanisms
  • Integrity
  • Negativity bias
  • Online trust
  • Online word-of-mouth

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