Can including pros and cons increase the helpfulness and persuasiveness of online reviews? The interactive effects of ratings and arguments

Abstract

One guideline given to online reviewers is to acknowledge a product's pros and cons. Yet, I argue that presenting two sides is not always more helpful and can even be less persuasive than presenting one side. Specifically, the effects of two-versus one-sided arguments depend on the perceived consistency between a reviewer's arguments and rating. Across a content analysis and three experiments that vary the information provided in the online review and whether the ratings are positive or negative, the results support these predictions. Furthermore, beliefs that the reviewer is able (vs. willing) to tell the truth mediated the effects.

How consumer reviews persuade through narratives

“…Most work has focused on why consumers choose to generate consumer reviews (Balasubramanian & Mahajan, 2001) or a review's impact (Schlosser, 2011). The process of how consumer reviews persuade has received less attention.…”

“…Several authors have used a holistic measure of review persuasiveness as a context-independent way to capture a review's overall usefulness (Schlosser, 2011).…”

A Survey of Quality Prediction of Product Reviews

“…Furthermore, review sites must favour content over balance, a review expressing both positive and negative statements towards a product is not perceived as more helpful as a one-sided review. This idea was also proposed by Schlosser [62], who argues that reviews including two-sided arguments (pros and cons), are not necessarily more helpful, credible and persuasive than a onesided argument review. The study proves that reviews with two-(versus one-) sided arguments receive higher helpfulness votes only if the reviewer rating is fairly favourable, while reviews written by extremely favourable reviewers are considered more helpful even if they include only one-sided argument.…”

The Effect of Self-Enhancement and Regulatory Focus On Word of Mouth

“…For instance, social networking sites provide opportunities for self-presentation (Manago et al 2008) by offering a gateway via favourable self-descriptions and photos (Buffardi and Cambell 2008). People engage in self-enhancing concerns (Chambers and Windschitl 2004;Schlosser 2011) to give others a positive impression about themselves (Vohs, Baumeister and Ciarocco 2005). People generate positive WOM of their own experiences due to self-enhancement motives (De Angelis et al 2012).…”