Reality Versus Rhetoric: The Prevalence of Country-Induced Subjective Language in Online Reviews and Its Impact on Readers

Decades of research on online reviews have revealed that consumers adopt objective language (e.g., words directly related to a product) and subjective language (e.g., words tied to the reviewer's personal beliefs or biased assumptions) to write online reviews. Despite its importance, little research reveals whether reviewers include language that reflects their subjective feelings about a product's country of origin and how these biased elements within reviews shape prospective readers’ opinions about the products. First, the authors examine a sample of Amazon's product reviews and find that consumers tend to incorporate more country-induced subjective cues in online review language when they experience global crises that trigger pervasive sentiments against or in favor of a country. Then, the authors experimentally manipulate product reviews and show that such language reduces the reviews’ credibility in the eyes of prospective readers. In addition, the results corroborate that while the persuasive power of positive country-induced subjective reviews on purchase intentions is negligible, exposure to negative country-induced subjective reviews significantly increases consumers’ purchase intention. The authors provide evidence that the shift in purchase decisions is due to the development of empathetic feelings that motivate them to support the seller. Overall, this research extends the understanding of how global crises influence online review language and how prospective readers respond to language.