Selecting Online Reviews After Making a Decision: Congeniality and Refutation Biases

• In Event: User-Generated Content Effects

Abstract

Post-decisionally, individuals may reduce their cognitive dissonance by (a) finding information supportive toward the decision (congeniality bias) or (b) finding weak unsupportive information (refutation bias). Applied to online product reviews (e.g., Amazon.com), competing hypotheses propose that after making a product-related decision, individuals utilze cues available on Web 2.0 sites (e.g., star ratings, helpfulness ratings, and badges) to preferentially select reviews. An original experiment prompted participants to make a decision and select reviews to read. Results showed participants generally (1) selected congenial reviews earlier, (2) preferred reviews rated as (a) helpful and (b) written by authors with credibility badge and purchase verification. Future research proposes to examine the connection between cognitive dissonance and other sources of influence on Web 2.0 websites.

Author

• Yuhua (Jake) Liang, Chapman University