Consumer Ambivalence in Online Review Contexts
Summary
Consumer ambivalence arises when online reviews present both positive and negative evaluations of a product or service, prompting conflicting emotional and cognitive responses. In digital marketplaces, this phenomenon is increasingly common as users encounter heterogeneous feedback across rating platforms, supplementary comments and algorithmically curated summaries. Ambivalence shapes the way individuals process information, influences the fluency of their judgements and ultimately impacts purchase intentions and site engagement. The coexistence of favourable and unfavourable cues can heighten uncertainty, slow decision-making and alter perceptions of trustworthiness. Research has explored how the sequence and valence of comments affect consumers with differing levels of product involvement, the role of additional reviewer insights in moderating information adoption and the mechanisms by which ambivalent attitudes serve as mediators between external marketing stimuli and behavioural outcomes. Understanding ambivalence is pivotal for designing review interfaces, tailoring recommendation systems and guiding managerial responses to consumer feedback.
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Consumer Ambivalence in Online Review Contexts publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in consumer ambivalence in online review contexts across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Consumer ambivalence: The simultaneous presence of positive and negative evaluations towards a product or service that creates inner conflict during decision-making.
Attitude uncertainty: The degree of confidence a consumer has in their judgement when information is contradictory or ambiguous.
Information processing fluency: The ease with which individuals absorb and interpret information, influencing their judgments and decisions.
Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model: A framework describing how external stimuli affect internal states (organism) and subsequently drive behavioural responses.
References
- The Impact of Online Additional Comments on Consumers’ Information Adoption. Sociology Mind (2017).
- The Sequence Effect of Supplementary Online Comments in Book Sales. IEEE Access (2019).
- Does Impulsive Posting Hurt or Help? The Effects of Conflicting Online Information on Attitude Uncertainty and Behavioural Consequences: The Moderating Role of Peer Social Network Support. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research (2023).
- Research on Game Players' Willingness to Purchase Based on the Perspective of Ambivalent Attitudes. Journal of Applied Economics and Policy Studies (2024).
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