Student: Camilla Tepin Rizzi
Student number: 2253488
Seminar number: 4 (The Complaining Consumer)
Seminar instructor: Ruthie Pliskin
Word count essay 1: 268
Word count essay 2: 268
Discussion Essay 1: Humor and emotions: do they hinder reviews’ perceived reliability?
Humorous complaints often hinder the criticizing-tone within product reviews,
whereas the effect reverses in the context of positive reviews, in which humor obstructs the
perceptions of positive evaluations (McGraw, Warren & Kann, 2015). Other than humor,
emotion can also alter the way reviews come across, impacting later product evaluations:
according to Kim and Gupta (2012) people give less weight to others’ negative reviews when
negative “emotional items” (EI) are present and value positive reviews less when positive EI
are present.
Humor and EI appear to influence the informative nature of electronic word-of-mouth
(eWOM), leading to the discrediting of reviews. We may argue that emotional content
personalizes reviews to the extent that emotions are perceived as a biased informational
source. Explaining why, when exposed to both positive and negative reviews (with respective
positive and negative EI), people attend informative content (Kim & Gupta, 2012): it is
possible that internal conflicts are avoided when all reviews present EI, desensitizing about
EI and allowing more awareness towards information. EI may also be misleading due to Self-
serving bias, resulting in underestimation of external factors’ (e.g. product) influence in
explaining others’ behaviors (e.g. disliking product), viewing EI as a product of intrinsic-
dispositional factors. Likewise, humor in negative reviews may condition us due to the
conflict between criticism contradicting itself with humor, causing the source to be perceived
as less rational, hence less reliable.
Since reviews seem less trustworthy when EI and humor are present, future research
could test the essay’s assumptions that they are acting as indicators of personal bias. Findings
could inform how best to complain or praise, not only in reviews.
Student number: 2253488
Seminar number: 4 (The Complaining Consumer)
Seminar instructor: Ruthie Pliskin
Word count essay 1: 268
Word count essay 2: 268
Discussion Essay 1: Humor and emotions: do they hinder reviews’ perceived reliability?
Humorous complaints often hinder the criticizing-tone within product reviews,
whereas the effect reverses in the context of positive reviews, in which humor obstructs the
perceptions of positive evaluations (McGraw, Warren & Kann, 2015). Other than humor,
emotion can also alter the way reviews come across, impacting later product evaluations:
according to Kim and Gupta (2012) people give less weight to others’ negative reviews when
negative “emotional items” (EI) are present and value positive reviews less when positive EI
are present.
Humor and EI appear to influence the informative nature of electronic word-of-mouth
(eWOM), leading to the discrediting of reviews. We may argue that emotional content
personalizes reviews to the extent that emotions are perceived as a biased informational
source. Explaining why, when exposed to both positive and negative reviews (with respective
positive and negative EI), people attend informative content (Kim & Gupta, 2012): it is
possible that internal conflicts are avoided when all reviews present EI, desensitizing about
EI and allowing more awareness towards information. EI may also be misleading due to Self-
serving bias, resulting in underestimation of external factors’ (e.g. product) influence in
explaining others’ behaviors (e.g. disliking product), viewing EI as a product of intrinsic-
dispositional factors. Likewise, humor in negative reviews may condition us due to the
conflict between criticism contradicting itself with humor, causing the source to be perceived
as less rational, hence less reliable.
Since reviews seem less trustworthy when EI and humor are present, future research
could test the essay’s assumptions that they are acting as indicators of personal bias. Findings
could inform how best to complain or praise, not only in reviews.
