TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional contagion triggered by online consumer reviews
T2 - Evidence from a neuroscience study
AU - Herrando, Carolina
AU - Jiménez-Martínez, Julio
AU - Martín-De Hoyos, María José
AU - Constantinides, Efthymios
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors want to acknowledge the support of the BMS Lab from the University of Twente, with special thanks to dr. ir. Jan-Willem van't Klooster and Peter Slijkhuis. We thank Ingrid Nieuwenhuis for her invaluable feedback. Likewise, the authors acknowledge the support and suggestions from BitBrain Technologies. The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund (GENERES Group S-54), the Ministry of Science and Innovation from the Government of Spain (project PID2020-118425RBI00), and the Section Entrepreneurship and Technology Management (ETM) from the University of Twente.
Funding Information:
The authors want to acknowledge the support of the BMS Lab from the University of Twente , with special thanks to dr. ir. Jan-Willem van't Klooster and Peter Slijkhuis. We thank Ingrid Nieuwenhuis for her invaluable feedback. Likewise, the authors acknowledge the support and suggestions from BitBrain Technologies. The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund (GENERES Group S-54), the Ministry of Science and Innovation from the Government of Spain (project PID2020-118425RBI00 ), and the Section Entrepreneurship and Technology Management (ETM) from the University of Twente .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - People tend to align with the emotional state of the person that is talking to them (the observed). Similarly, while processing information consumers can also experience this emotional contagion. Emotional contagion can activate in those who process information (the observer) similar responses in the autonomic nervous system and the neural responses as in those who create such information (the observed), triggering a certain level of arousal. Neuroscience enables researchers to study emotional contagion by monitoring the activation of neural structures and physiological responses. This study draws on the theory of arousal to investigate how different combinations of online consumer review (OCR) valence can trigger different emotions and customer experiences in the observer (the one who reads the OCRs). This study conducts a consumer neuroscience experiment to monitor emotional arousal. The physiological analyses (through skin conductance response) confirm that the emotional arousal of the observer aligns with that of the observed. The neural analyses (through electroencephalography) show the valence of the arousal, which indicates that negative OCRs activate arousal and pleasure in the observer, while positive OCRs are associated with arousal deactivation and displeasure.
AB - People tend to align with the emotional state of the person that is talking to them (the observed). Similarly, while processing information consumers can also experience this emotional contagion. Emotional contagion can activate in those who process information (the observer) similar responses in the autonomic nervous system and the neural responses as in those who create such information (the observed), triggering a certain level of arousal. Neuroscience enables researchers to study emotional contagion by monitoring the activation of neural structures and physiological responses. This study draws on the theory of arousal to investigate how different combinations of online consumer review (OCR) valence can trigger different emotions and customer experiences in the observer (the one who reads the OCRs). This study conducts a consumer neuroscience experiment to monitor emotional arousal. The physiological analyses (through skin conductance response) confirm that the emotional arousal of the observer aligns with that of the observed. The neural analyses (through electroencephalography) show the valence of the arousal, which indicates that negative OCRs activate arousal and pleasure in the observer, while positive OCRs are associated with arousal deactivation and displeasure.
KW - Arousal
KW - Consumer neuroscience
KW - EEG
KW - Emotional contagion
KW - SCR
KW - Digital Marketing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125675632&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102973
DO - 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102973
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125675632
VL - 67
JO - Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
JF - Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
SN - 0969-6989
M1 - 102973
ER -