Are Critics Credible? Negative Sources Are Perceived to Be Less Credible

We propose and demonstrate that consumers infer lower source credibility when messages are negative rather than positive because they violate expected norms. Four studies provide evidence that consumers infer lower source credibility from negative messages, and that this effect is mitigated when consumers do not expect to find positive messages.

Citation:

Junha Kim and Joseph Goodman (2021) ,"Are Critics Credible? Negative Sources Are Perceived to Be Less Credible", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 49, eds. Tonya Williams Bradford, Anat Keinan, and Matthew Matthew Thomson, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 503-504.