This research examines whether the written contents of online reviews can generate systematic differences in the review’s perceived helpfulness even with identical ratings. In addition, this research explores which underlying psychological mechanism creates the systemic differences related to helpfulness. Specifically, the results from our two experiments demonstrate that, when an online hotel review has a positive rating, written contents containing both positive and negative information is perceived as more helpful than reviews with only positive written content. In contrast, when an online hotel review has a negative rating, written contents that contain only negative information is perceived as more helpful than reviews with written content containing both positive and negative information. Importantly, our study shows that the degree of information diagnosticity in online reviews behaves as an underlying psychological mechanism in the process. Our findings not only contribute to the extant literature but also provide useful insights and practical implications for travel websites.

中文翻译：

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相同级别的评论评分是否具有相同级别的评论有用性？信息诊断在在线评论中的作用

这项研究调查了即使评论评分相同，在线评论的书面内容是否也会在评论的感知帮助上产生系统性差异。此外，本研究探讨了哪些潜在的心理机制造成了与帮助有关的系统性差异。具体来说，我们两个实验的结果表明，当在线酒店评论获得正面评价时，包含正面和负面信息的书面内容被认为比仅具有正面书面内容的评论更有帮助。相反，当在线酒店评论的评分为负面时，仅包含负面信息的书面内容将被视为比具有正面和负面信息的书面内容的评论更有帮助。重要的，我们的研究表明，在线评论中信息诊断的程度是该过程中潜在的心理机制。我们的发现不仅有助于现有文献，而且还为旅行网站提供了有用的见解和实际意义。