The effects of the format of two-sided online reviews: A linguistic perspective

•Review format affects how reviewers compose and how readers process two-sided reviews.•Two frequently used formats are the mixed narrative (MN) format and the divided narrative (DN) format.•Reviewers are more likely to use adversative conjunctions (ACs) in the MN format than in the DN format.•When two-sided reviews are presented in pro-con order, reviews composed in the MN format lead to more negative product attitudes than those composed in the DN format because of the presence of ACs.•This effect is mediated by the difference in how consumers allocate their attention between positive and negative content in the reviews.