Show Me You or The Goods? Effect of Image Content on Review Helpfulness

With rapid technological advancement, sharing images has become commonplace. Visual information is potentially more engaging than texts and star ratings because it is easily processed. Indeed, recent work examining the role of visual information and social media engagement shows that the presence of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ding, Mengqi (Annie), Chen, Shirley (Shuo), Wang, Xin (Shane), Bendle, Neil
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Information sharing
Social networks
Technological change
User generated content
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:With rapid technological advancement, sharing images has become commonplace. Visual information is potentially more engaging than texts and star ratings because it is easily processed. Indeed, recent work examining the role of visual information and social media engagement shows that the presence of images can enhance consumers' engagement with the platform. This is especially relevant given that work has suggested that consumers have decreasing attention spans. The average attention span was reported to have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to just 8.25 seconds in 2013. Thus, visual information is an attractive option given the risk of information overload in the digital space, making it even more critical to understand the role of image in online reviews. Results of Bendle et al's study have several practical implications. Their findings provide important implications for user generated content systems aiming to help consumers. They suggest what may help determine review helpfulness. This will allow platforms to optimize incentives to encourage high-quality reviews.
ISSN:0098-9258