Paradoxical Relationship between the Amount of Negative eWOM Messages and Positive Consumer Attitude

Most research has shown that positive electric word-of-mouth (e-WOM) has positive effects, while negative e-WOM has negative effects on consumer attitude towards a product. However, negative e-WOM may have positive impacts rather than negative impacts. Using ANOVA in three experiments, this study found that negative e-WOM can have a positive impact on consumer attitude under some conditions, including when the e-WOM is in regard to hedonic products, when expert consumers read attribute-centric reviews, and/or when there is negative e-WOM at the top of the website than at the bottom.