商品类型对消费者评论认知的影响:基于眼动实验

How the Product Type Influences Consumer Cognition about Online Review:An Eye-tracking Experiment

在线评论是消费者在线购买产品或服务的重要信息来源。近年来,许多商家鼓励消费者在发表文字评论的同时上传买家秀图片,表明多数商家认为含有图片的评论更有助于消费者完成购买任务。已有在线评论有用性的相关研究广泛探讨了纯文字评论对消费者决策的影响,缺少消费者对纯文字评论与含有图片评论认知差异的研究。在此背景下,基于模式一致性理论提出不同商品类型情景下消费者对纯文字和含有图片两类评论认知行为的研究假设,从认知心理学视角系统地研究商品类型对消费者评论认知行为的影响机理;通过眼动实验收集数据,采用独立样本t检验和双因素方差分析检验研究假设;同时检验性别在商品类型与评论认知关系中的调节作用,从理论上证明商品类型对消费者评论认知的影响,为验证商品类型、评论形式和性别因素间的内在机制提供实证支持。研究结果表明,商品类型显著影响消费者在线评论认知行为。眼动实验证实消费者在购买搜索型商品时更依赖纯文字评论做出决策。对于体验型商品,女生组眼动数据支持所有研究假设,当女性消费者购买体验型商品时,对网页中含有图片评论的关注度更高;当她们购买搜索型商品时,对网页中纯文字评论的关注度更高。性别在商品类型影响评论认知的关系中起调节作用,并给出多因素间更为复杂的交互关系。研究结论表明消费者对两种评论形式存在认知差异,揭示了消费者在线评论认知行为规律,对于商家及社交商务平台展开有针对性的促销策略都具有实际指导意义,同时眼动实验方法的应用为消费者行为研究提供了新的视角。

Online review is an important source of information for the consumers who intend to buy products or services online. In recent years, many sellers have encouraged consumers to provide pictures besides verbal review, which shows that most sellers think photographic review is more helpful to consumers＇ cognition. Previous studies have extensively explored the influence of verbal reviews on consumers＇ decision making. Many scholars have investigated the effects of quantity and quality of online re- views, the polarity of reviews, and the hierarchical features of online reviews on the usefulness of consumer comments, yet ig- nored the comparative study of verbal reviews and photographic reviews. Based on schema congruity theory, this paper proposed the hypothesis about online review cognitive behavior for two product types, and explored the impact of product types on consumers＇ review cognitive mechanism from the perspective of cognitive psy- chology. We collected data by an eye-tracking experiment, and tested the hypotheses by Independent sample t test and two fac- tors variance analysis. Then, this paper examined the moderating effect of gender. Through the validation, the influence of prod- uct types on consumer online reviews has been proven theoretically, and empirical support has been provided to verify the internal mechanism of product types, reviews forms and gender. It turns out that product type has a significant impact on consumer online reviews. Eye-tracking research has proved that consumers rely more on verbal reviews to make decisions when they buy search products. And as to experience products, the con- clusions of female fixation time support all research hypothesis. When female consumers intend to buy experience products, they pay more attention to photographic reviews. When female consumers intend to buy search products, they pay more attention to verbal reviews. Furthermore, the research method has proved that gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between product type and online reviews. Male consumers and female consumers have different cognitive styles for verbal reviews and pho- tographic reviews on different product types. For female consumers, regardless of the product type, they pay more attention to photographic reviews. And eye-tracking experiment show a more complex interaction between multiple factors. The findings indicate that there exist the differences in consumers＇ cognition of verbal review and photographic review, and reveal the laws of how online review influences consumer behavior. They are also of practical significance for sellers and social commerce platforms to implement customized promotional strategies. What＇s more, the eye-tracking experiment casts new light on the research of consumer behavior.