Curbing Negativity: Influence of Providing Justifications About Control Over User-Generated Comments on Social Media

Soo Yun Shin*, Yue(Nancy) Dai, David Beyea, Benjamin Prchal, Taj W. Makki, Katherine Schlafhauser, Brandon Van Der Heide

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Social media present prime opportunities for commercial brands to promote their products. Some user-generated comments, however, hamper brands’ promotion efforts with fake claims. The literature on warranting theory suggests that if a company controls the dissemination of user-generated comments of its products, it may backfire against the company by reducing the warranting value of favorable comments. The current study proposes that a company’s justification for their information control behavior can restore the warranting value of user-generated comments. Drawing upon the literature on fairness theory and mindlessness, the study investigated the effectiveness of two types of justifications varying in their legitimacy. Results from a web-based experiment (N = 221) with four conditions (no evidence of dissemination control vs. no justification vs. placebic justification vs. real justification) confirm that when a company offers a legitimate justification for deleting users’ comments, it mitigates negative evaluations that may result from the company’s information control behavior.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)838-859
JournalCommunication Research
Volume47
Issue number6
Online published21 Aug 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2020
Externally publishedYes

Research Keywords

  • e-commerce
  • justification
  • online reviews
  • social media
  • warranting theory

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