Are attractive reviewers more persuasive? Examining the role of physical attractiveness in online reviews

Abstract

Purpose While online reviews are of paramount importance in brand evaluations and purchase decisions, the impact of a reviewer’s attractiveness is not well understood. To bridge that gap, this paper aims to explore how physical attractiveness cues through profile photos influence customers’ brand evaluations. Design/methodology/approach The first study assesses the impact of attractiveness and review valence on brand evaluations. The authors used an experimental design and tested the model with an ANCOVA. Study 2 examines the impact of attractiveness in the context of multiple reviews and tests attractiveness heuristic as the underlying mechanism. Findings The findings indicate that when an attractive (vs less-attractive) reviewer writes a positive review, brand evaluations are enhanced. However, such an effect does not occur with a negative review. With multiple reviews varying in valence, cognitive load activates the use of an attractiveness heuristic when a positive review is written by an attractive (vs less-attractive) reviewer, thus leading to enhanced brand evaluations. Originality/value These findings highlight the presence of the attractiveness halo effect in online reviews and offer important implications to social media marketers. While previous studies have largely focused on review characteristics (e.g. star ratings, strength of the argument, etc.), this study focuses on reviewer characteristics (i.e. attractiveness) and cognitive biases associated with online brand evaluations.

Consumer skepticism about online reviews and their decision-making process: the role of review self-efficacy and regulatory focus

“…Consumer skepticism toward online reviews is tied to message content and style and review extremity and valence (Filieri, 2016). The profile photo/ attractiveness of the reviewer (Ozanne et al, 2019), linguistic style and reported experience of the reviewers reduce the socialpsychological distance between the reviewer and the potential consumer, reducing consumer skepticism toward the online reviewer (Hern andez-Ortega, 2018). Review characteristics such as positivity, involvement and sociability can generate skepticism among readers (Banerjee et al, 2017).…”

“…Online reviews are becoming a critical consumption decision factor. Recent research suggests electronic word of mouth is perceived as less misleading and more specific and trustworthy than traditional marketing communications (Ngarmwongnoi et al, 2020;Ozanne et al, 2019;Rynarzewska, 2019). The Pew Research Center finds that 82% of American adults read online reviews before purchasing any item and that almost half of the American adults believe it is hard to tell if online reviews are truthful and unbiased (Smith and Anderson, 2016).…”

“…Skepticism has been widely studied as a predictor of consumer behavior (Obermiller and Spangenberg, 1998;Obermiller et al, 2005). Past research provides evidence of the negative effect of skepticism on reliance on advertising (Obermiller and Spangenberg, 1998) or prescriptions (Ford et al, 1990), establishes the effect of skepticism on purchase decisions (Albayrak et al, 2011;Chen and Leu, 2011;Elving, 2013) and studies the reasons behind consumers' skepticism toward online reviews (Banerjee et al, 2017;Ozanne et al, 2019;Reimer and Benkenstein, 2016). However, some gaps in the literature exist.…”

Assessment of influencer’s effects on customers’ online purchasing behavior in Vietnam

“…Attractiveness is defined by many researchers as a combination of similarity, familiarity, and likability of credibility sources (Maddux & Rogers, 1980;Steadman, 1969). Numerous studies have shown that celebrity's attractiveness has a positive effect on brand image, attitudes toward the brand and purchasing intention (Joseph, 1982;Mello, Garcia-Marques, Briñol, Cancela, & Petty, 2020;Ozanne, Liu, & Mattila, 2019); and it also becomes more favorable if the attractiveness of the endorser has increased (Kamins, 1990). Besides, attractiveness is not only about appearance but also requires the spiritual skills, personality, lifestyle, and talent of celebrities (Erdogan, 1999).…”

The alliance-outcome correlation: Is there a halo effect?

“…In 1920, Edward Thorndike (1920) observed that military commanding officers’ ratings of subordinates’ performance changed after they interacted with their subordinates. More recently, the halo effect has been documented in a variety of contexts such as ratings of students (e.g., Malouff & Thorsteinsson, 2016), teachers (e.g., Keeley et al, 2013), employees (e.g., Viswesvaran et al, 2005), managers (e.g., Mathisen et al, 2011), politicians (e.g., Babad et al, 2012), online reviewers (e.g., Ozanne et al, 2019), and multiattribute objects such as websites (Kwak et al, 2019), resulting in biased perceptions of characteristics like success, competence, intelligence, and expertise. Given the apparent pervasiveness of this interpersonal bias, evaluation of the therapeutic encounter may also be susceptible.…”