The Boundary Role of Consumer Involvement in Review Credibility and Purchase Decisions

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Negative Online Reviews; Electronic Word of Mouth; Review Credibility; Cognitive Dissonance; Consumer Involvement

Abstract

Consumer decision-making is becoming more and more influenced by online reviews. Negative reviews have mostly been viewed in earlier studies as risk cues that increase uncertainty and reduce purchasing intentions. However, the notion that “negative reviews equal risk” is no longer sufficient in information-rich digital contexts. Based on research insights from electronic word-of-mouth, persuasion theory, and cognitive dissonance theory, this paper discusses how moderately negative online comments function in a domain that is overwhelmingly filled with favorable reviews. In doing so, it also emphasizes the boundary effect of consumer participation. Drawing on a synthesis of current literature, this analysis is based on the perspectives of information diagnosis, two-way information effects, and imperfect review structures. Results indicate that imperfect structures of reviews with limited, reasonable, and interpretable negative information are closer to human-like demands for authentic feedback, and add to the credibility and reference-value of review. In addition, presence of positive and negative reviews are not equivalent to decreased purchase intentions. The presence of information conflict that is within a controllable range for both information and subjective evaluation can stimulate more nuanced and comprehensive cognitive processing in which the processing may yield more balanced and psychologically logical judgments. Low involvement still causes bad reviews to predominantly serve as danger signals, even while increasing engagement enhances this impact among highly active consumers. This study improves knowledge of negative online reviews and provides theoretical implications for review research and platform design by focusing on review structure and cognitive processing.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Hao Yan
AU  - Wanyu Zhong
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - The Boundary Role of Consumer Involvement in Review Credibility and Purchase Decisions
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 3rd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 169
EP  - 180
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_19
ID  - Yan2026
ER  -