"Not some trumped up beef": Assessing Credibility of Online Restaurant Reviews
Venue
Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2015, Springer
Publication Year
2015
Authors
Marina Kobayashi, Victoria Schwanda Sosik, David Huffaker
BibTeX
Abstract
Online reviews, or electronic word of mouth (eWOM), are an essential source of
information for people making decisions about products and services, however they
are also susceptible to abuses such as spamming and defamation. Therefore when
making decisions, readers must determine if reviews are credible. Yet relatively
little research has investigated how people make credibility judgments of online
reviews. This paper presents quantitative and qualitative results from a survey of
1,979 respondents, showing that attributes of the reviewer and review content
influence credibility ratings. Especially important for judging credibility is the
level of detail in the review, whether or not it is balanced in sentiment, and
whether the reviewer demonstrates expertise. Our findings contribute to the
understanding of how people judge eWOM credibility, and we suggest how eWOM
platforms can be designed to coach reviewers to write better reviews and present
reviews in a manner that facilitates credibility judgments.
