Unmasking Deception: How do Consumers Determine the Veracity of Online User Reviews?

Michelle Walther*, Steven James Watson, Alexander Boden, Mariëlle Stel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractAcademic

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Abstract

To influence consumers to buy products of lower quality, criminals produce fake online consumer reviews, which in health and safety related products can not only lead to financial and emotional but also physical harm. Understanding how people make judgements about review veracity presents an opportunity to examine how people make deception judgments in a naturalistic setting, when there are direct personal consequences for the decisions they make.
The objective of this research is to develop a grounded theory of how consumers determine the veracity of online user reviews, within the context of online shopping behavior, with a longer term objective to develop interventions to strengthen consumer resilience.
Study 1 comprised 25 interviews with Dutch and German consumers analyzed through grounded theory. In study 2, we used a think-aloud method where participants described their thought processes while they decided whether or not they would like to buy 7 different products.
Study 1 showed that deception judgments only occurred late in the review process, after usefulness, credibility, and trustworthiness were evaluated. Furthermore, when deception judgments are made, they encompassed a wide range of cues, including evaluation of the reviewer, seller and platform and corroboration with external information as well as the content of the review itself. We expect that the second study will refine our developed theory by addressing the key limitation of our first study, which is that it is based upon recollections of purchasing behavior rather than capturing live decision making processes.
Theoretically, our research demonstrates how deception decisions are embedded within wider decision-making contexts. Practically, our research indicates that deception training interventions will have to be multifaceted and would likely include increasing the perceived legitimacy of genuine products and sellers as well as facilitating recognition of reliable cues to deception for individual users.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 12 Jul 2024
EventAnnual Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, EAPL 2024 - Egas Moniz School of Health and Science, Monte de Caparica, Portugal
Duration: 9 Jul 202412 Jul 2024
https://www.eapl2024.com/welcome

Conference

ConferenceAnnual Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, EAPL 2024
Abbreviated titleEAPL 2024
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityMonte de Caparica
Period9/07/2412/07/24
Internet address

Keywords

  • Fake reviews
  • consumer-perspective
  • consumer psychology
  • deception detection
  • deception

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