The role of dialecticism and reviewer expertise in consumer responses to mixed reviews

Abstract

An overwhelming majority of consumers read online reviews prior to making purchase decisions, and such reviews often contain both positive and negative evaluations about a company or a brand. However, there is scant research examining how reviewer expertise and dialecticism (i.e., understanding of contradictory information) simultaneously influence the impact of review valence (i.e., either univalent positive/negative or mixed) on consumers’ attitude certainty and decision comfort. The study findings indicate that when reviews are written by non-experts, high dialectical thinkers exhibit similar levels of attitude certainty across univalent and mixed review conditions. Conversely, low dialectical thinkers exhibit higher levels of attitude certainty in the univalent (vs. mixed) review condition. Such an interaction between review valence and dialectical thinking is attenuated when reviews are written by experts. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.