, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook (FB), announced that a billion people had used FB in 1 day to connect with friends and family, a milestone that was reached about a decade after the launch of the social media platform in 2004 (facebook.com). This rapid growth of FB brought with it an increase in the use of its "social media buttons" such as the "Like" and "Share" features. In May 2013, FB estimated that 4.5 billion Likes were generated daily by its users, a 67% increase from August 2012 (facebook.com). Like and Share buttons are plugged into more than 10 million websites globally (facebook.com) at present, and many companies and organizations have integrated a FB platform into their websites. However, despite this dramatic increase in the use of the Like feature, research into user motivations to engage in Liking behavior is scarce. Many studies have concentrated on the outcomes of the Like, such as purchase intentions and service quality

Purpose People express subjectivity and objectivity in everyday communication, yet little is known about how such linguistic content affects persuasion in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Drawing on the congruity theory and the selectivity model, the present study proposes that the effectiveness of subjectivity/objectivity expressions in an online review is contingent on whether the consumption experience is primarily hedonic or utilitarian, and whether the decision maker is a male or female. Furthermore, this study aims to examine the psychological mechanism that underlies the proposed effects. Design/methodology/approach This research used an experimental design to test the hypotheses. Four versions of online review stimuli were created. Participants were asked to read the online reviews and to complete a survey. Findings The findings indicate that expressing subjectivity (vs objectivity) in online reviews effectively boosts men’s purchase intention in the hedonic context and women’s purchase intention in the utilitarian context. Furthermore, the mediation analysis reveals that perceived relevance of the review is the psychological mechanism explaining the joint effects of linguistic style, consumption type and gender on purchase intention. Originality/value This research is the first to examine expressing subjectivity (vs objectivity) as a persuasion strategy in online reviews. Findings of this research add to the growing literature on linguistic effects in eWOM. Furthermore, this research deepens the understanding of conversational norms for hedonic vs utilitarian consumption in consumer-generated content and gender differences in processing online reviews.

Purpose While online reviews are of paramount importance in brand evaluations and purchase decisions, the impact of a reviewer’s attractiveness is not well understood. To bridge that gap, this paper aims to explore how physical attractiveness cues through profile photos influence customers’ brand evaluations. Design/methodology/approach The first study assesses the impact of attractiveness and review valence on brand evaluations. The authors used an experimental design and tested the model with an ANCOVA. Study 2 examines the impact of attractiveness in the context of multiple reviews and tests attractiveness heuristic as the underlying mechanism. Findings The findings indicate that when an attractive (vs less-attractive) reviewer writes a positive review, brand evaluations are enhanced. However, such an effect does not occur with a negative review. With multiple reviews varying in valence, cognitive load activates the use of an attractiveness heuristic when a positive review is written by an attractive (vs less-attractive) reviewer, thus leading to enhanced brand evaluations. Originality/value These findings highlight the presence of the attractiveness halo effect in online reviews and offer important implications to social media marketers. While previous studies have largely focused on review characteristics (e.g. star ratings, strength of the argument, etc.), this study focuses on reviewer characteristics (i.e. attractiveness) and cognitive biases associated with online brand evaluations.

This study evaluates whether increasing information visibility around the identity of a moderator influences bystanders’ likelihood to flag subsequent unmoderated harassing comments. In a 2-day preregistered experiment conducted in a realistic social media simulation, participants encountered ambiguous or unambiguous harassment comments, which were ostensibly flagged by either other users, an automated system (AI), or an unidentified moderation source. The results reveal that visibility of a content moderation source inhibited participants’ flagging of a subsequent unmoderated harassment comment, presumably because their efforts were seen as dispensable, compared to when the moderation source was unknown. On the contrary, there was an indirect effect of other users versus AI as moderation source on subsequent flagging through changes in perceived social norms. Overall, this research shows that the effects of moderation transparency are complex, as increasing visibility of a content moderator may inadvertently inhibit bystander intervention.

Purpose As tattoos increase in popularity, questions persist regarding their impact on customer perceptions. To help shed light into this issue, this paper aims to explore the impact of tattooed restaurant servers in the context of service failures. Through the agency and communion theory, the authors propose that a female server with tattoos induces higher levels of negative word of mouth (WOM) intention than her male counterpart. Furthermore, the authors propose that perceived competence mediates this effect. Design/methodology/approach Through a 2 (tattoos status: yes, no) × 2 (server’s gender: male, female) experimental design, a panel of consumers were exposed to a restaurant service failure scenario with a photograph of a server. Depending on the condition, the server was either a male or female and had (or not) a tattoo on their left arm and neck. The same tattoo design was used for both genders. Findings The findings indicate that, in a service failure context, customers’ propensity to generate negative WOM does not differ across tattooed (vs non-tattooed) servers. However, contrary to the expectations of the authors, people tend to react more negatively to a male (vs female) server with tattoos. Originality/value Research on tattoos in the customer service context is scant, especially in hospitality. Furthermore, no previous study on tattoos has empirically tested a mediation process explaining differences in customer perceptions. Contrary to previous findings, this study demonstrates that an exposure to male (vs female) tattooed servers increases customers’ propensity to generate negative WOM. In other words, the type of profession coupled with the employees’ gender might influence customer perceptions. Furthermore, as customers’ propensity to generate negative WOM did not increase when served by a tattooed (vs non-tattooed) employee, managers in aesthetic labor industries, such as the foodservice business, can be more accepting of employees with tattoos.