From the Alpen-Adria-Universität press release via AlphaGalileo:
Increasingly, consumers are using online reviews prior to purchasing products or booking holidays. A new study reveals which factors affect the assessment of the trustworthiness and usefulness of online reviews.
For many, going on holiday and staying in a hotel is a special experience: But how individuals tend to perceive the available offer can vary widely. In order to minimize the risk of disappointment, many consumers have started to rely on the opinions of others, which are published on online platforms.
It is not unusual to come across the opinion of one guest, who feels that the rooms of a certain hotel are clearly too small, while another guest staying at the same hotel is perfectly satisfied with the size of the rooms. Sonja Grabner-Kräuter (Department of Marketing and International Management, Alpen-Adria-Universität) and Martin Waiguny (Marketing, Advertising, Retailing and Sales, Auckland University of Technology) have systematically investigated and recorded which online reviews are perceived as trustworthy and useful.
“In conducting this study, what we endeavoured to discover was how the similarity between the writer and the reader, as well as the style of the review, affect the perceived trustworthiness and usefulness”, Sonja Grabner-Kräuter describes the central research question. Working with students enrolled in the Applied Business Administration degree, the researchers carried out two experimental investigations: 174 students and graduates were interviewed in the course of the first investigation, a total of 130 were surveyed for the second investigation. These investigations yielded a number of relevant results: On the whole, negative reviews were regarded as being more trustworthy and more useful than positive reviews.
“We also explored the interactions between the factors objectivity/emotionality, similarity of writer/reader, positive/negative review”, Grabner-Kräuter goes on to explain. Researchers were able to determine a series of interconnections. Sonja Grabner-Kräuter provides the following summary: “Generally, factual written reviews are evaluated better. However, in cases where writer and reader are not alike, the emotions and experiences contained within the reviews play a crucial role in the assessment of their trustworthiness.”