Purpose

The study explored users' tendency of confirmation bias when processing congenial vs. uncongenial electronic-word-of-mouth (e-WOM) about mystery fictions, a hedonic product category with strong experience and hedonic characters.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-stage judgment approach was employed where the participants were asked to judge a set of mystery novels twice: one before, and another after they were exposed to positive and negative e-WOM. The first-stage judgment established two favored and two disfavored titles by each participant. They were then asked to read six consumer reviews – three positive and three negative – for each of the four titles. The procedures created four review evaluation situations: two congruent and two incongruent, which allowed the authors to assess the participants' perceptions of congenial and uncongenial reviews and their rating adjustments of the titles. Participants' involvement in mystery novels was also measured to test its moderating effect on confirmation bias.

Findings

Confirmation bias in the evaluation of e-WOM was observed and reinforced by the user's involvement in the genre. Congenial reviews were perceived to be significantly more credible, better reflect the intrinsic value of a title and less subjectively motivated than uncongenial reviews. Furthermore, after exposure to equal amount of positive and negative e-WOM, an asymmetrical adjustment of final rating of the titles was observed. A significantly greater downward adjustment was observed for disfavored than favored titles. Stronger positive confirmation bias was also observed in the evaluation of WOM.

Research limitations/implications

Previous studies on e-WOM have shown conflicting findings on the relative efficacy of positive vs. negative reviews. By introducing the factor of prior attitudes, the study demonstrated that whether WOM is consistent with an individual's prior attitude, rather than the valences of WOM in itself, determines its persuasiveness. Thus, it established the confirmation bias in users' processing of e-WOM. The finding highlights the importance for marketers to establish a positive initial impression, which, as the findings demonstrated, helps alleviate the damages caused by negative WOM.

Originality/value

This is the first study that has ever attempted to study the effect of confirmation bias during the users' processing of e-WOM in an experimental setting. By having the participants judge the books before and after exposure to congenial and uncongenial e-WOM, the authors were able to establish the link between the users' prior commitment to a book and their subsequent judgment of both the titles and the e-WOM.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2020-0026

中文翻译：

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调和正面和负面电子口碑的影响：确认偏差和参与的作用

目的

该研究探讨了用户在处理关于神秘小说的合意与不合意的电子口碑 (e-WOM) 时的确认偏差倾向，这是一种具有丰富经验和享乐特征的享乐产品类别。

设计/方法/方法

采用两阶段判断方法，要求参与者对一组神秘小说进行两次判断：一次是在他们接触正面和负面的电子口碑之前，另一个是在他们暴露于正面和负面的电子口碑之后。第一阶段的判决确定了每个参与者的两个赞成和两个反对的头衔。然后，他们被要求阅读四个标题中的每个标题的六个消费者评论——三个正面和三个负面。该程序创建了四种评论评估情况：两种一致和两种不一致，这使作者能够评估参与者对合意和不合意的评论的看法以及他们对标题的评级调整。还测量了参与者对神秘小说的参与，以测试其对确认偏差的调节作用。

发现

电子口碑评价中的确认偏差被观察到，并因用户参与该类型而得到加强。与不合意的评论相比，合意的评论被认为更可信，更好地反映了标题的内在价值，并且主观动机更少。此外，在暴露于等量的正面和负面 e-WOM 之后，观察到标题最终评级的不对称调整。观察到不受欢迎的标题比受欢迎的标题显着更大的向下调整。在 WOM 的评估中也观察到了更强的阳性确认偏差。

研究限制/影响

先前关于 e-WOM 的研究表明，正面评论与负面评论的相对功效存在相互矛盾的发现。通过引入先验态度因素，研究表明口碑是否与个人的先验态度一致，而不是口碑本身的效价决定了其说服力。因此，它建立了用户处理电子口碑的确认偏差。该发现强调了营销人员建立积极的初始印象的重要性，正如调查结果所表明的那样，这有助于减轻负面口碑造成的损害。

原创性/价值

这是第一个尝试在实验环境中研究用户处理 e-WOM 过程中确认偏差影响的研究。通过让参与者在接触合适和不合适的 e-WOM 之前和之后对书籍进行评判，作者能够在用户之前对一本书的承诺与他们随后对书名和 e-WOM 的判断之间建立联系。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史可在以下网址获得：https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2020-0026