Not so bad after all: How format influences review writers' post-review evaluations

While a great deal of research has explored how different formats of online reviews can influence the review reader, less research has explored how writing in different styles of reviews can influence the review writer. This research contributes to the online review literature by exploring how informational versus story review formats influence the review writer's product or service evaluation. Although prior research has found that stories are effective at persuading readers, the current research finds evidence to the contrary for review writers. Writers of negative informational reviews reported evaluations that were less negative after writing the review compared to those who wrote story reviews. Surprisingly, negative informational reviews can make positive aspects of the product or service experience more salient, hence tempering the effects of a negative product experience and positively influencing evaluations. If retailers are interested in improving consumers' product or service evaluations after a negative experience, this research suggests that they would be better served by asking consumers to write an informational review as compared to a story review.