TY - JOUR
T1 - Online Reviews, Helpfulness Ratings, and Consumer Attitudes
T2 - An Extension of Congruity Theory to Multiple Sources in Web 2.0
AU - Walther, Joseph B.
AU - Liang, Y.
AU - Ganster, Tina
AU - Wohn, Donghee Yvette
AU - Emington, Josh
PY - 2012/10
Y1 - 2012/10
N2 - In online shopping, users may contribute reviews that are subject to overt evaluations from other users' helpfulness ratings. Still other users may provide comments indicating agreement or disagreement with the original reviewer. This research modified congruity theory (Osgood & Tannenbaum, 1955) to predict effects on attitudes of readers who observe contributions from three potential sources of influence: review valence, other users' aggregated helpfulness rating of the review, and another user's verbal agreement or disagreement with the review. Results supported the hypothesized interaction effect among the 3 factors affecting attitudes toward a product, toward reviewers, and commenters. The findings suggest that congruity theory provides a framework for understanding effects from a juxtaposition of sources and messages within a participatory Web system.
AB - In online shopping, users may contribute reviews that are subject to overt evaluations from other users' helpfulness ratings. Still other users may provide comments indicating agreement or disagreement with the original reviewer. This research modified congruity theory (Osgood & Tannenbaum, 1955) to predict effects on attitudes of readers who observe contributions from three potential sources of influence: review valence, other users' aggregated helpfulness rating of the review, and another user's verbal agreement or disagreement with the review. Results supported the hypothesized interaction effect among the 3 factors affecting attitudes toward a product, toward reviewers, and commenters. The findings suggest that congruity theory provides a framework for understanding effects from a juxtaposition of sources and messages within a participatory Web system.
KW - Congruity theory
KW - Helpfulness Ratings
KW - Online Reviews
KW - User-generated content
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84867413708&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84867413708&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01595.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01595.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84867413708
SN - 1083-6101
VL - 18
SP - 97
EP - 112
JO - Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
JF - Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
IS - 1
ER -