Effects of online consumer reviews 'valence on users' experience: A neuromarketing experiment

Digital platforms, such as social commerce websites, allow users to buy, interact and socialize anytime and anywhere. In this environment, users’ experience and purchase decision-making process is impacted by the online information of the websites, most part of it generated and shared by other users. Therefore, online consumer reviews (OCR) have a valence –positive, negative or neutral– based on users’ experience. According to Emotional Contagion theory, states of mood can be transferred from one person to the other. Hence, users’ previous experiences through OCR valence could affect other users’ states of mind. With the purpose of boosting positive optimal experiences based on Flow theory, this research main objective is to analyze how OCR valence (mainly positive, mainly negative, balanced valence and neutral OCR) can lead to different states of mind (boredom, anxiety, flow and apathy). This research is split into two studies. Study 1 collected data about how individuals use and check OCR, in order to explore users’ perception and help to design study 2. Study 2 presents a neuro-physiological experiment through biosensors recordings to measure heart rate variability (HRV) and galvanic skin response, and electroencephalogram recording (EEG). The data from the experiment are already collected and currently being analyzed.