Consumers rely on information provided online, such as customer reviews. In doing so, they not only pay attention to facts, but also to emotional content. In five experiments, we show that others’ feelings toward an experience good as conveyed in online customer reviews influence consumer judgments. We further demonstrate that this influence of others' feelings on consumer judgments is mediated via positive feelings. Lastly, we identify a boundary condition of this emotional contagion effect in illustrating that the effect does not occur when customer reviews feature negative feelings. The findings highlight the power of emotional expressions in online customer reviews.
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