%0 Journal Article
%T How People Evaluate Online Reviews
%A Brandon Van Der Heide
%A David C. DeAndrea
%A Mao H. Vang
%A Megan A. Vendemia
%J Communication Research
%@ 1552-3810
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0093650215573862
%X The ability viewers have to contribute information to websites (i.e., user-generated content) is a defining feature of the participatory web. Building on warranting theory, this study examined how viewers¡¯ evaluations of a target are more or less likely to be influenced by user-generated content. The results indicate that the more a target is perceived to be able to control the dissemination of user-generated reviews online, the less credence people place in those reviews when forming impressions of the target. In addition, the less people are confident that user-generated reviews are truly produced by third-party reviewers, the less people trust those reviews. The results provide novel support for warranting theory by illustrating how the warranting value of user-generated information can vary and thus differentially affect viewers¡¯ evaluations of a target. The implications of the study¡¯s results for warranting theory, online impression management, e-commerce, and future research are discussed
%K warranting theory
%K e-commerce
%K online product reviews
%K Yelp
%K online impression management
%K review spamming
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093650215573862