People generally believe that business with negative word-of-mouth, such as negative customer reviews can hardly have good sales. But a number of intriguing examples seem to contradict such beliefs. Academic has so far begun to explore the possible positive effect of negative customer reviews, but without unfolding its underlying mechanism. This paper proposes a mechanism through which the variance of customer reviews moderates the effect of negative reviews on sales.,This study takes a multi-method approach in explaining the phenomenon, including an empirical analysis using secondary data from a movie review website and a movie box office website and a subsequent experimental study in a controlled experiment.,The findings of the study show that the effect of negative customer reviews on product sales is positive when the variance of customer reviews is large. Moreover, customers’ motivation to learn fully mediates the moderating effect of review variance on valence.,The findings provide vital managerial implications and suggest that managers should realize the important role of the review distribution.,This study mainly contributes to research on the negativity bias by identifying an important unexplored moderator and mediator and thus explains why negative customer review increases movie sales.

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负面评论何时，为什么产生正面影响？

人们普遍认为，口碑不好的业务（例如负面的客户评论）很难取得良好的销售业绩。但是，许多有趣的例子似乎与这种信念相矛盾。迄今为止，Academic已经开始探索负面客户评论的可能正面影响，但并未展开其潜在机制。本文提出了一种机制，通过该机制，顾客评论的差异可以缓解负面评论对销售的影响。本研究采用多方法方法来解释这种现象，包括使用电影评论网站和电影中的辅助数据进行的实证分析。票房网站以及随后在受控实验中进行的实验研究，该研究的结果表明，当顾客评论的差异很大时，负面顾客评论对产品销售的影响是正的。此外，客户充分学习的动机介导了评价方差对价的调节作用。研究结果提供了至关重要的管理意义，并建议管理人员应意识到评价分布的重要作用。本研究主要有助于研究消极偏见通过确定重要的未开发主持人和调解人，从而解释了为什么负面的客户评论会增加电影销量。