The Effects of Expertise Claims and Expertise Warrants on Attitude Towards Online Product Reviews

This study suggests that online source types (typical consumer vs. expert source) can induce differential effects on two dimensions of source credibility?perceived source expertise and perceived source trustworthiness?and, hence, on messages attitudes. This was tested for online product reviewers by means of two experiments. The results revealed two competing mechanisms: Source type (typical consumer vs. expert source) had a positive indirect effect on review attitude through perceived trustworthiness, and a negative indirect effect through perceived expertise. In tandem, these mechanisms suppressed the relationship between source type and review attitude. This suppression situation only emerged when the expert status of the source was based on self-claims; when the expert status of the source was verified by a peer rating system, no suppression situation emerged.

Citation:

Lotte Willemsen, Peter Neijens, and Fred Bronner (2011) ,"The Effects of Expertise Claims and Expertise Warrants on Attitude Towards Online Product Reviews ", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Zhihong Yi, Jing Jian Xiao, and June Cotte and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 354-355.