Narrative Construction of Product Reviews Reveals the Level of Post-Decisional Cognitive Dissonance

Tibor Pólya,Tímea Budai,Gabriella Judith Kengyel

doi:10.3390/info12010046

Abstract

Social media platforms host an increasing amount of costumer reviews on a wide range of products. While most studies on product reviews focus on the sentiments expressed or helpfulness judged by readers and on their impact on subsequent buying this study aims at uncovering the psychological state of the persons making the reviews. More specifically, the study applies a narrative approach to the analysis of product reviews and addresses the question what the narrative construction of product reviews reveals about the level of post-decisional cognitive dissonance experienced by reviewers. The study involved 94 participants, who were asked to write a product review on their recently bought cell phones. The level of cognitive dissonance was measured by a self-report scale. The product reviews were analyzed by the Narrative Categorical Content Analytical Toolkit. The analysis revealed that agency, spatio-temporal perspective, and psychological perspective reflected the level of cognitive dissonance of the reviewers. The results are interpreted by elaborating on the idea that narratives have affordance to express affect.

Highlights

Background and AimWith the rapid growth of social media services, the ability of users to create and publish contents online has led to active virtual communities that share a wealth of product information
Sentiment has an influence on the perceived helpfulness of the online product review as well [13,14,15,16], and it has been found to be a useful guide in the product or service innovation process [17,18]
This study addresses this question; it focuses on what can be learnt from product reviews regarding the level of cognitive dissonance experienced by the reviewers

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid growth of social media services, the ability of users to create and publish contents online has led to active virtual communities that share a wealth of product information. These online product reviews are frequently subjected to linguistic analysis to reveal the sentiment expressed. Little attention has been paid to the question of how sentiment as measured in product reviews is related to the authors’ psychological states; that is, to their attitudes. This study addresses this question; it focuses on what can be learnt from product reviews regarding the level of cognitive dissonance experienced by the reviewers

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion