Emotional expressions in online user reviews: How they influence consumersʹ product evaluations

This article investigates an understudied aspect of online word-of-mouth (eWOM) — the effects of emotional expressions in eWOM. Two experiments investigate how consumers interpret emotional expressions in online user reviews and the subsequent impact on their product evaluations. The findings reveal that negative emotional expressions in a single negative review tend to decrease the reviewsʹ informative value and make consumersʹ product evaluations less negative because consumers attribute the negative emotions to the reviewerʹs irrational dispositions. However, positive emotional expressions in a single positive review do not influence consumersʹ product evaluations significantly even though consumers attribute the positive emotions to the product. Next, when multiple convergent emotional expressions are present in multiple user reviews, both positive and negative emotional expressions increase informative value of the reviews and polarize consumersʹ product evaluations in the respective direction.