Do same-level review ratings have the same level of review helpfulness? The role of information diagnosticity in online reviews

This research examines whether the written content of online reviews can generate systematic differences in the review’s perceived helpfulness even with identical ratings. In addition, this research explores which underlying psychological mechanism creates the systemic differences related to helpfulness. Specifically, the results from our two experiments demonstrate that, when an online review has a positive product rating, mixed written content (e.g., both positive and negative information) is perceived as more helpful than reviews with only positive written content. In contrast, we also found that, when an online review has a negative product rating, written content that contains only negative information is perceived as more helpful than reviews with mixed written content. Our study illustrates that the degree of information diagnosticity in online reviews behaves as an underlying psychological mechanism in the process. Our findings not only contribute to the extant literature but also provide useful insights and practical implications for e-commerce companies