Online Customer Reviews and Consumer Evaluation: The Role of Review Font

52 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2016 Last revised: 10 Aug 2017

See all articles by Yunhui Huang

Yunhui Huang

Nanjing University - School of Business

Changxin Li

Nanjing University - School of Business

Jiang Wu

Nanjing University - School of Business

Zhijie Lin

Tsinghua University - School of Economics and Management

Date Written: August 2017

Abstract

Inspired by the literature on processing fluency and the practical question of how to choose fonts for website design, we investigated the impact of customer reviews on consumer evaluation under an easy-to-read (vs. difficult-to-read) review font. We found that the feeling of ease in reading led consumers to judge the reviewers as more credible, thus increasing the impact of the reviews. Moreover, the effect of font diminished when consumers elaborated information more thoroughly (when high in need for cognition, or in an accountable situation), and thus did not use simple heuristics (reading ease) to judge the credibility of the review.

Keywords: processing ease, review valence, online customer reviews, credibility, need for cognition, accountability

Suggested Citation

Huang, Yunhui and Li, Changxin and Wu, Jiang and Lin, Zhijie, Online Customer Reviews and Consumer Evaluation: The Role of Review Font (August 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2833719 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2833719

Yunhui Huang (Contact Author)

Nanjing University - School of Business ( email )

22 Hankou Road
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093 210093
China

Changxin Li

Nanjing University - School of Business ( email )

22 Hankou Road
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093 210093
China

Jiang Wu

Nanjing University - School of Business ( email )

22 Hankou Road
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093 210093
China

Zhijie Lin

Tsinghua University - School of Economics and Management ( email )

Haidian District
Beijing, Beijing 100084
China

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