Malicious practice of fake reviews: Experimental insight into the potential of contextual indicators in assisting consumers to detect deceptive opinion spam

Abstract

Consumers often rely on experiences from other individuals shared online when making purchase decisions; however, the trustworthiness of consumers’ online opinions is jeopardized by fake reviews. Three experimental studies were conducted that included different potential detection support mechanisms to identify fake reviews. The results show that a self-protection prime and two of the three tested detection support mechanisms affect the source’s trustworthiness. This research contributes to the field of online interactions by highlighting the potential of contextual – instead of textual – indicators, such as third-party labels and social proof, which assist Internet users in their efforts to detect fake reviews.