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Negative Reviews, Positive Impact: Consumer Empathetic Responding To Unfair Word Of Mouth, Thomas Allard, Lea H. Dunn, Katherine White

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This research documents how negative reviews, when perceived as unfair, can activate feelings of empathy toward firms that have been wronged. Six studies and four supplemental experiments provide converging evidence that this experienced empathy for the firm motivates supportive consumer responses such as paying higher purchase prices and reporting increased patronage intentions. Importantly, this research highlights factors that can increase or decrease empathy toward a firm. For instance, adopting the reviewer's perspective when evaluating an unfair negative review can reduce positive consumer responses to a firm, whereas conditions that enhance the ability to experience empathy-such as when reviews are highly …