Seeking the opinions of others online: Evidence of evaluation overshoot

The internet has evolved into a social tool whereby consumers increasingly read reviews and the opinions of others to aid their purchase decisions. The amount of review information available often leads consumers to process both positive reviews and negative. In two experiments, the present research documents evidence of brand evaluation overshoot as a function of information valence order. In experiment one, positive information about a brand that is replaced by negative information continues to influence judgments, but negative information that is replaced by positive information does not. In experiment two, online hotel reviews ordered from positive to negative result in a more positive evaluation than if the same reviews are ordered from negative to positive. Together, these results provide evidence of asymmetric affective perseverance, suggesting that the order in which the information is presented has a differential impact on final judgment.

► We examine consumer judgments when information is of opposite valence.
► Positive information is incompletely replaced when invalidated by negative information.
► Positive reviews followed by negative lead to a more positive evaluation than the other way around.
► The order in which customer reviews are presented affects end judgments.