Which reviewers are honest and caring? The effect of constructive and prosocial information on the perceived credibility of online reviews

Abstract

Consumers often infer review credibility based on the content of online reviews. This study explores the influences of three positive review types on consumers’ perceptions of posters’ honesty and caring and subsequently review credibility. An experiment was conducted and the participants included 931 online travel community users. The results found that compared with positive reviews that contain only complimentary information, reviews that also contain constructive or prosocial information improve subjects’ perception of posters’ honesty and caring, respectively, and that this influence is particularly significant for participants with low propensity to trust. Second, compared with hotels with high reputation, consumers have significantly reduced perceptions of reviewers’ honesty if the reviewers provide only complimentary information in positive reviews for hotels with low brand reputation rather than both complimentary and constructive information. Finally, the higher the subjects’ perception of the reviewers’ honesty and caring is, the higher the consumers’ perception of review credibility. • Constructive information increases perceptions of reviewers’ honesty. • Prosocial content in positive reviews increases perceptions of reviewers’ caring. • Low trustors respond negatively to the absence of constructive and prosocial content. • Absence of constructive information decreases reviewers’ honesty while commenting for low brand reputation. • Reviewers’ honesty and caring positively affect online review credibility.