Don't be rude! The effect of content moderation on consumer‐brand forgiveness

Abstract

While it is a popular belief that venting helps unload frustrations about negative (customer) experiences, its effects on consumers' emotional states and consumer‐brand forgiveness (CBF) remain to be explored. Given that a lot of customer complaints are made online, brands seem ambivalent about managing these public complaints without violating consumers' right to free speech. In two experiments, we find that writing a customer complaint increases negative emotions regarding an incident. Moreover, brands can mitigate this negative effect by asking consumers to moderate their speech—for example, with the help of a content moderation policy. Specifically, if brands impose restrictions on consumers' freedom to express their frustrations, essentially asking them for self‐censorship, anger levels in their language decrease and CBF increases. We demonstrate that this effect is stronger for consumers with strong self‐brand connection.

Exploring customers' responses to online service failure and recovery strategies during Covid‐19 pandemic: An actor–network theory perspective

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The effect of service failure severity on brand forgiveness: the moderating role of interpersonal attachment styles and thinking styles

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Co‐brand partnerships making space for the next black girl: Backlash in social justice branding

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