Understanding the Association between Star Ratings and Review Helpfulness: The Perspectives of Expectation Confirmation Theory and Negativity Bias

Consisting of textual, multimedia, and numerical information elements, online consumer reviews (OCR) have been considered an essential information source of products for prospective consumers. Researchers have made significant efforts to comprehend how these information elements are associated with OCRs’ information value or helpfulness. However, there is a paucity of theoretical evidence on consumers’ perception and evaluation of star ratings and their information, even though star ratings as numerical information cues can imply multiple meanings. In this study, we leverage (1) expectation-confirmation theory to delineate star ratings as the extent of consumer satisfaction and (2) negativity bias to explain the relationship between star ratings and helpfulness. Using 45,621 reviews of 20 products across three categories, we empirically find that our theoretical approaches improve our understanding of the effect of star ratings on helpfulness. Therefore, this study contributes to the extant literature on OCRs by providing the theory-based evaluation of star ratings in relation to helpfulness