Featuring Mistakes: The Persuasive Impact of Purchase Mistakes in Online Reviews

Abstract

Companies often feature positive consumer reviews on their websites and in their promotional materials in an attempt to increase sales. However, little is known about which particular positive reviews companies should leverage to optimize sales. Across four lab studies involving both hypothetical and real choices as well as field data from a retailer’s website (Sephora), the authors find that consumers are more likely to purchase a product if it is recommended by a reviewer who has (vs. has not) made a prior purchase mistake. The authors define a purchase mistake as a self-identified suboptimal decision whereby people purchase a product that subsequently fails to meet a threshold level of expected performance. This persuasive advantage emerges because consumers perceive reviewers who admit a purchase mistake as having more expertise than even reviewers whose purchase experience has not been marred by mistakes. As a result, in marketers’ attempts to increase the persuasive influence of reviews featured in their promotional materials, they may inadvertently decrease it by omitting the very information that would lead consumers to be more likely to purchase recommended products.

Psychological distance in consumer psychology: Consequences and antecedents

“…They avoid admitting their own vulnerability while granting lenience to socially distant others who showcase vulnerability (Bruk, Scholl, & Bless, ). To shield themselves from such vulnerability, consumers reliably omit information about purchase mistakes from their online reviews (Reich & Maglio, ). When tasked instead with evaluating reviews authored by others, for whom vulnerability seems less negative (see Eyal, Liberman, Trope, & Walther, ), potential purchasers find reviews that include mention of a purchase mistake more helpful and more persuasive (Reich & Maglio, ).…”

Predicting consumers’ choices in the age of the internet, AI, and almost perfect tracking: Some things change, the key challenges do not

“…Early research investigating this question suggests that, in some contexts, moderately favorable reviews are perceived as more thoughtful, and therefore are more persuasive, than extremely favorable reviews (Kupor & Tormala, 2018). Other research indicates that reviews written on mobile devices (Grewal & Stephens, 2019), reviews in which the reviewer admits to past purchase mistakes (Reich & Maglio, 2020), and reviews that tell good stories (van Laer et al., 2019) are particularly persuasive. Yet other research suggests that people rely on reviews less for experiences than for material purchases because the former are thought to be more subjective (Dai et al., 2020).…”

Undermining Your Case to Enhance Your Impact: A Framework for Understanding the Effects of Acts of Receptiveness in Persuasion

“…Reich and Maglio (2020) examined the effect of explicitly acknowledging a past mistake on the persuasiveness of one’s current message. In one study, participants were asked to choose between two sets of headphones and read a review that recommended one set over the other.…”