Purpose

A counterintuitive finding of existing research is that negative reviews can produce positive effects; for example, they can increase purchase likelihood and sales by increasing product awareness. It is important to continue highlighting this fact and to develop further insights into this positive effect, as a more thorough analysis can provide online retailers with a more comprehensive understanding of how to effectively manage and use negative reviews. Thus, by using an eye-tracking method, this paper attempts to provide a further thorough analysis of positive effects of negative reviews from a cognitive perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

An eye-tracking experiment with two tests over a time delay was performed to examine whether negative reviews have some positive effects. Review valence (positive vs. negative), brand popularity (popular vs. unpopular) and advertising exposure (no repetition vs. repetition) were considered in the experiment.

Findings

The results show that a cognitive process of attention allocation happens when consumers deal with brand popularity cues and that arousal evoking and attention allocation occur when handling review valence. Allocation of more attention to unpopular brands helps improve brand awareness and enhance brand memory, and larger arousal from negative reviews narrows attention and leads to a better memory of products and brands. However, with the passage of time, the memory of review valence can dissociate and fade, and the remaining awareness of and familiarity with unpopular brands with negative reviews contribute to a positive reversion, which leads to the production of positive effects from negative reviews.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature on online reviews by examining the visual processing of review valence and brand popularity with an eye-tracking method and by revealing the cognitive mechanism of positive effects of negative reviews from a visual attention perspective.

中文翻译：

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负面评论的积极影响：眼动追踪视角

目的

现有研究的一个违反直觉的发现是负面评论可以产生积极影响。例如，他们可以通过提高产品知名度来增加购买可能性和销售额。继续强调这一事实并进一步深入了解这一积极影响非常重要，因为更彻底的分析可以让在线零售商更全面地了解如何有效管理和使用负面评论。因此，通过使用眼动追踪方法，本文试图从认知角度对负面评论的积极影响进行更深入的分析。

设计/方法/方法

进行了一项在一段时间内进行两次测试的眼动追踪实验，以检查负面评论是否有一些积极影响。实验中考虑了评论效价（正面与负面）、品牌知名度（流行与不受欢迎）和广告曝光率（无重复与重复）。

发现

结果表明，当消费者处理品牌知名度线索时，会发生注意力分配的认知过程，而在处理评论效价时，会发生唤醒和注意力分配。将更多注意力分配给冷门品牌有助于提高品牌知名度和增强品牌记忆力，而从负面评论中获得更大的唤醒会缩小注意力并导致对产品和品牌的记忆更好。然而，随着时间的推移，对评论效价的记忆可能会分离和消退，而对带有负面评论的冷门品牌的剩余认识和熟悉会导致正面回归，从而导致负面评论产生正面影响。

原创性/价值

本文通过眼动追踪方法检查评论效价和品牌知名度的视觉处理，并从视觉注意角度揭示负面评论积极影响的认知机制，从而为在线评论的文献做出贡献。