Abstract A pseudo-review is a type of online user-generated review (“review”) posted on an e-commerce website that often resembles an authentic review on the surface, telling an exaggerated story about alleged product use. However, while authentic reviews often include humor as a stylistic device to convey a genuine product evaluation, pseudo-reviews use humor to mock some product aspect. This research introduces, conceptualizes, and investigates consumer response to pseudo-reviews. Study 1 demonstrates that pseudo-reviews have little effect on product attitude when presented in isolation. However, in Study 2, when pseudo-reviews are presented together with authentic reviews, they negatively affect attitude and purchase intentions, but only to a limited extent, in that medium level incongruity (2 pseudo-reviews and 2 authentic reviews) ratings were lower than the control condition (no pseudo-reviews and 2 authentic reviews). The low level (one pseudo-review) and high level (four pseudo-reviews) incongruity conditions had no distinguishable effects on product evaluations compared to the control conditions. The paper discusses theoretical implications for schema incongruity and optimal stimulus level literature streams, as well as managerial implications for companies that seek to understand how to manage their online reputation given the growing importance and prevalence of user-generated content.

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伪评论：新在线现象的概念化和消费者效应

摘要 伪评论是一种发布在电子商务网站上的在线用户生成评论（“评论”），表面上通常类似于真实评论，讲述有关涉嫌产品使用的夸张故事。然而，虽然真实评论通常包括幽默作为传达真实产品评价的一种风格手段，但伪评论使用幽默来嘲笑某些产品方面。本研究介绍、概念化和调查消费者对伪评论的反应。研究 1 表明，当孤立呈现时，伪评论对产品态度几乎没有影响。然而，在研究 2 中，当伪评论与真实评论一起呈现时，它们会对态度和购买意愿产生负面影响，但影响有限，在这种中等程度的不协调（2 条伪评论和 2 条真实评论）中，评分低于控制条件（无伪评论和 2 条真实评论）。与对照条件相比，低水平（1 个伪评论）和高水平（4 个伪评论）不一致条件对产品评价没有明显影响。本文讨论了模式不一致和最佳刺激水平文献流的理论意义，以及考虑到用户生成内容的重要性和流行程度日益提高，寻求了解如何管理其在线声誉的公司的管理意义。与对照条件相比，低水平（1 个伪评论）和高水平（4 个伪评论）不一致条件对产品评价没有明显影响。本文讨论了模式不一致和最佳刺激水平文献流的理论意义，以及考虑到用户生成内容的重要性和流行程度日益提高，寻求了解如何管理其在线声誉的公司的管理意义。与对照条件相比，低水平（1 个伪评论）和高水平（4 个伪评论）不一致条件对产品评价没有明显影响。本文讨论了模式不一致和最佳刺激水平文献流的理论意义，以及考虑到用户生成内容的重要性和流行程度日益提高，寻求了解如何管理其在线声誉的公司的管理意义。