SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2009, 37(1), 137-144

© Society for Personality Research (Inc.)

Consumer Skepticism and Online Reviews: An

Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective

Peter J. Sher and Sheng-Hsien Lee

National Chi Nan University, Nantou County, Taiwan, ROC

Online consumers vary in their tendency to believe or disbelieve online reviews. Based on
an Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1981, 1986), the present study
tested the effects of consumer skepticism on online consumers. A total of 278 undergraduates
expressed their attitudes about a product in an online experiment. Two findings emerged from
the results. First, highly skeptical consumers tend to base their attitudes on intrinsic beliefs
instead of situational factors; that is, they are biased against certain types of information and
indifferent to the message quality. Second, consumers with low skepticism tend to adopt the
peripheral route in forming attitude; that is, they are more persuaded by review quantity. These
findings contribute to the ELM research literature by considering a potentially important
personality factor in the ELM framework. Managerial implications are suggested.

Keywords: online review, Elaboration Likelihood Model, attitude, skepticism.

The use of the Internet as a channel for expressing opinions on products

has become an important marketing tool to compete for consumer attention
and visits (Chatterjee, 2001). With the declining trust in advertising, Word of
Mouth (WOM) has become the most influential communication channel. As an
electronic form of WOM, online consumer reviews provide a trusted source of

Peter J. Sher, PhD, Professor, and Sheng-Hsien Lee, Doctoral Candidate, Department of International
Business Studies, National Chi Nan University, Nantou County, Taiwan, ROC.
Peter J. Sher is Dean of College of Management and Professor of International Business Studies
at National Chi Nan University, Taiwan. He received his PhD in Marketing and Strategy from the
University of Warwick, UK.
Sheng-Hsien Lee is a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration, Yu Da College of
Business, Taiwan. He is currently a doctoral candidate of International Business Studies at National
Chi Nan University, Taiwan.
Appreciation is due to anonymous reviewers.
Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sheng-Hsien Lee, Department of International
Business Studies, National Chi Nan University, Nantou County, Taiwan, ROC. Phone: +886 49
2910960; Fax: +886 37 651201; Email: stephen@ydu.edu.tw

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product information for consumers – and therefore a potentially valuable sales

asset. Positive consumer reviews on product or company are one of the best
predictors of business growth (Keller, 2007). However, little is known about how
online messages influence the purchasing intention of consumers (Chatterjee).
The first purpose of the present study was to broaden understanding about effects
of online reviews. By introducing the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a
referent theory, this study contributes to the online behavior literature.
Obermiller and Spangenberg (1998) suggest a paradox whereby the nature of a
free market encourages exaggerations in marketing messages which subsequently
induces consumer skepticism. Through socialization and purchasing experiences,
consumers come to believe or disbelieve marketing messages. In an empirical
study, Calfee and Ringold (1994) found that the majority of consumers believe
that advertising is often untrustworthy and accordingly discount claims made
by advertisements. Although online reviews provide easy access to information
about products and services, they also foster consumer skepticism. The fact that
this new form of WOM is information from strangers whom the consumers have
never met, and probably never will meet, casts doubt on the trustworthiness of
these online messages. Therefore, considerable criticism has been directed at
Internet information, especially online reviews. Chatterjee (2001) suggests that
some online surfers even get paid for referrals or purchases and/or get advertising
income from target firms. The second purpose of this study was to attempt to use
consumer skepticism as a moderator to test the ELM hypotheses. Managerial
implications are suggested.

Literature Review
ELM The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) developed by Petty and
Cacioppo (1981, 1986) provides a useful framework for understanding the
effectiveness of persuasive communication. Based on the ELM, attitude change
may occur via two routes of influence, the central route and the peripheral route.
The two alternative routes differ in the amount of thoughtful processing of
information or elaboration. Individuals taking the central route think critically
about issue-related arguments and scrutinize the merits and relevance of those
arguments before forming an attitude about the advertisement or product.
Conversely, individuals taking the peripheral route make less cognitive effort and
rely on shortcuts such as the number of arguments and physical attractiveness
of endorsers when forming an attitude (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Petty and
Wegener (1999) suggest that individuals in high elaboration likelihood state are
more likely to engage in thoughtful processing of information and are also more
likely to be persuaded by argument quality. People in low elaboration state tend
to base their attitude change on peripheral cues. Elaboration likelihood moderates
the effects of argument quality and peripheral cues on attitude change. According
 CONSUMER SKEPTICISM AND ONLINE REVIEWS 139
to the ELM, elaboration likelihood is determined by an individual’s motivation
and ability to elaborate. Motivation refers to the individual’s personal relevance
to the persuasive message while ability is manifest in the individual’s cognitive
competence or prior expertise with the attitude object. Individuals vary in their
ability and motivation to elaborate.
Skepticism Skepticism refers to the tendency toward disbelief (Obermiller
& Spangenberg, 1998). Consumers come to believe or disbelieve marketing
messages through socialization and purchasing experiences. Although the Internet
provides easy access to information about products and services, it may foster
consumer skepticism. Ford, Smith, and Swasy (1990) reviewed issues about the
dimensionality of skepticism. Their study shows that one may have different
levels of skepticism toward claims made in advertisements and the motives of
advertisers. In other words, skeptical tendency may vary depending on product
type or audience personality. Consumer skepticism reflects a marketplace belief
held by a consumer. This tendency is a stable, generalizable belief which reflects
a consumer’s implicit views of how the marketplace works. A scale measuring
consumer skepticism was developed by Obermiller and Spangenberg.
Friestad and Wright (1994) developed a framework for examining the
moderating influence of consumer persuasion knowledge in responses to
marketing communications. Persuasion knowledge was defined as the learning
that consumers use to interpret, evaluate and respond to persuasive attempts
from advertisers and marketers. It may include knowledge about persuasion
techniques and marketer tactics. Advanced persuasive knowledge implies higher
levels of skepticism toward advertising claims. Obermiller and Spangenberg
(1998) argue that highly skeptical consumers may perceive smaller differences
in situational factors (such as quality and quantity of messages) than do less
skeptical consumers. Highly skeptical consumers may be more prone to
disbelieve certain categories of product information (such as advertisements
or online reviews) without considering the source credibility, argument quality
or number of arguments. In other words, highly skeptical consumers may be
impossible to persuade via argument quality as they would not believe any
stated claims. Unlike consumers with high need for cognition, a highly skeptical
consumer shows a tendency to stereotype, where “… stereotype is . . . [a] set
of beliefs about the characteristics or attributes of a group” (Judd & Park,
1993). Stereotypes do not need to be inaccurate or negative. In other words, the
highly skeptical consumer takes intrinsic shortcuts, which are based on beliefs,
to evaluate information instead of using extrinsic shortcuts, which are based on
situational factors such as argument quality, to form attitudes. From the ELM
perspective, this response to information implies that one fundamental route to
persuasion is closed. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
140 CONSUMER SKEPTICISM AND ONLINE REVIEWS

H1: The purchasing intention of consumers with high skepticism is not influenced
by argument quality and quantity of online reviews.
Consumers with low skepticism are characterized by incomplete persuasion
knowledge. Friestad and Wright (1994) further characterized consumers with
incomplete persuasion knowledge as naïve and less mature, a cognitive status
indicative of a less developed cognitive ability. Based on the ELM theory,
elaboration likelihood is also determined by the cognitive ability of consumers.
Therefore, low skepticism consumers are more prone to be persuaded by
peripheral than central cues. Thus, less skeptical consumers who have less
persuasion knowledge will behave in ways similar to people low in need for
cognition. Individuals with low need for cognition do not enjoy cognitive efforts
and prefer to rely on opinions of others (preferable experts) when dealing with
complicated issues. They also tend to base their attitudes on simple cues such
as the source attraction (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981) and the number of
arguments offered by the messages (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984).
H2: The purchasing intention of consumers with low skepticism is more
influenced by argument quantity than quality of online reviews.

Method

Subjects and Design

A total of 278 undergraduate students participated in the online experiment
for extra credit. Subjects were randomly assigned in a factorial design. A virtual
shopping mall website – X Shopping Mall – was developed for the study. A cell
phone was selected as the focal product based on the majority opinion of a focus
group. The same focus group also determined six as the average number of online
reviews which online shoppers perceived as large quantity, and one for perceived
small quantity. In determining the argument quality (AQ) of online reviews, 30
online reviews were selected from the website Amazon.com and pretested by 30
subjects who were irrelevant to the later experiment. Strong argument quality
was defined as understandable, objective, and supported with relevant facts.
Based on majority opinion, the pretest yielded 6 strong-argument reviews and 6
weak-argument reviews.

Measures
Subjects were instructed to respond to measures of manipulation checks before
taking dependent measures – purchasing intention – and demographic questions.
The dependent measure of subjects’ purchasing intention (PI) contained two
questions: (1) How likely are you to choose “A Model” cell phone next time
you plan to purchase a cell phone of similar nature?; (2) Would you recommend
“A Model” cell phone to your friend? These two items were also anchored on
 CONSUMER SKEPTICISM AND ONLINE REVIEWS 141
a 7-point Likert scale. Finally, subjects were asked to rate the 9-item consumer
skepticism measures developed by Obermiller and Spangenberg (1998) on a
scale of 1-7 (1 – disagree strongly and 7 – agree strongly) before responding to
demographic questions.

Results

Manipulation Checks
Results of an ANOVA provided evidence that the argument quality was
successfully manipulated [F(1, 276) = 18.289, p < 0.001, M = 3.80 and 4.39].
In addition, the percentage of subjects who correctly recalled the number of
reviews was 94%, while the number of subjects who rightly perceived the nature
of the number (i.e., larger or smaller than the other cell phone reviews) was 83%.
Therefore, the quantity of online reviews was also manipulated successfully
(Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983).

Hypothesis Testing
Subjects were categorized as high or low in skepticism toward online reviews
via a median split (Mdn = 42). Table 1 summarizes the descriptive statistics of
purchasing intention scores. The data were submitted to a three-factor ANOVA.
Results showed a significant main effect of argument quality [F(1, 270) = 8.491,
p < 0.05] and a significant main effect of review quantity [F(1, 270) = 12.786,
p < 0.001]. In other words, the argument quality and quantity of online reviews
have a positive impact on the purchasing intention of online shoppers.

Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations for Each Experimental Cell on the Purchasing
Intention

Low Skepticism High Skepticism

Weak AQ Strong AQ Weak AQ Strong AQ

M SD M SD M SD M SD

Small quantity 3.91 1.06 4.11 1.41 3.44 1.25 3.63 1.10
n = 28 n = 32 n = 35 n = 38
Large quantity 4.59 1.07 5.06 0.69 3.33 1.38 4.07 0.91
n = 34 n = 35 n = 39 n = 37

Contradicting the ELM theory, the effect of argument quality x skepticism

interaction was not significant. The result suggested that high skepticism subjects
do not take the central route in formulating purchasing intention. On the other
hand, a significant quantity x skepticism interaction emerged from the three-factor
142 CONSUMER SKEPTICISM AND ONLINE REVIEWS

analysis [F(1, 270) = 5.662, p < 0.05]. Specifically, the main effect of review
quantity manipulation was qualified by a quantity x skepticism interaction. This
finding was consistent with the ELM prediction. In other words, the quantity
x skepticism interaction indicated that the subjects with low skepticism take
the peripheral route in formulating purchasing intention. Simple main effects
tests were conducted to further explore the effect. The results revealed that low
skepticism subjects expressed more positive attitudes after exposure to the large
quantity version (M = 4.83) than after exposure to the small quantity version
(M = 4.02) of online reviews [F(1, 127) = 17.755, p < 0.001], but that attitudes
of high skepticism subjects exposed to large (M = 3.69) and small (M = 3.54)
review quantity did not differ.
In summary, the purchasing intention of online shoppers with high skepticism
was not influenced by argument quality of online reviews. In addition, the
purchasing intention of online consumers with low skepticism was more
influenced by argument quantity than quality of online reviews. Thus, hypotheses
1 and 2 were supported.

Discussion

The purposes of the present study were to explore the effects of positive online
reviews on the attitudes of online consumers using skepticism as a moderator,
and the mechanisms supporting the effects. An online experimental study was
designed. Two major findings emerged from results. First, in our study people
with high skepticism shopping online did not take the central route in attitude
change as predicted by the ELM. Highly skeptical consumers tended to base their
attitudes on intrinsic beliefs instead of extrinsic factors; that is, they were biased
against a certain type of information and indifferent to the message quality.
Consumers with high skepticism had a tendency to disbelieve certain categories
of product information without considering the source credibility, argument
quality or number of arguments. In other words, highly skeptical consumers may
be impossible to persuade via argument quality as they would not believe any
stated claims contained in online reviews. This finding contributes to the ELM
research literature by considering a potentially important personality factor in
the ELM framework. Marketers and software developers should identify the
profiles of skeptical consumers carefully in order to communicate marketing
messages more efficiently. Demographic profiles about people with various
personality attributes (such as high and low skepticism) are important for market
segmentation and targeting.
Second, low skepticism consumers tend to adopt the peripheral route in
forming attitudes in an online context; that is, they are more persuaded by
quantity of online reviews since more reviews are perceived as indicating greater
 CONSUMER SKEPTICISM AND ONLINE REVIEWS 143
product popularity. In this sense, low skepticism consumers have similar char-
acteristics to those with low need for cognition; that is, less skeptical consumers
are prone to be persuaded by peripheral cues such as source credibility and
number of arguments. This finding contributes to a better understanding of the
mechanism underpinning the effect of online reviews. If they wish to influence
these consumers more effectively, marketing executives and software developers
should articulate a more user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of
posting reviews and therefore induces the participating intention. Incentives such
as prize draws and interactive online games can also enhance online shoppers’
intention to post reviews. Moreover, knowledge of the consumers’ level of
skepticism can guide the internet marketers and software developers alike to
design promotional materials and review formats that will influence online
shoppers effectively.

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