Will Comments Change Your Opinion? The Persuasion Effects of Online Comments and Heuristic Cues in Crisis Communication

The emergence of online communication reflects a shift in communication practitioners’ roles, with more emphasis on interactive features in news such as writing online comments and clicking “like” on such comments. A 2 (consistency: consistent crisis responsibility attribution between online news and online comments vs. inconsistent responsibility attribution) × 2 (heuristic cues: high vs. low number of “likes” clicked) mixed subject design was tested on N = 389 samples. The findings of this study showed that participants tended to attribute less crisis responsibility and held an improved regard of reputation towards a corporation when they read online comments defending the corporation compared to when participants only read the news. Our findings suggest corporate communication practitioners should acknowledge the role of online comments that could motivate people to attribute crisis responsibility in a positive direction.

[1]  Ji won Kim,et al.  Scan and click: The uses and gratifications of social recommendation systems , 2014, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[2]  Hyojung Park,et al.  The Organization-Public Relationship and Crisis Communication: The Effect of the Organization-Public Relationship on Publics' Perceptions of Crisis and Attitudes Toward the Organization , 2011 .

[3]  S. Sundar.  The MAIN Model : A Heuristic Approach to Understanding Technology Effects on Credibility , 2007 .

[4]  Stephen Cory Robinson.  Self-Disclosure and Managing Privacy: Implications for Interpersonal and Online Communication for Consumers and Marketers , 2017 .

[5]  Joohn C. Reinard.  The Empirical Study of the Persuasive Effects of Evidence The Status After Fifty Years of Research , 1988 .

[6]  Eun-Ju Lee,et al.  That's Not the Way It Is: How User-Generated Comments on the News Affect Perceived Media Bias , 2012, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[7]  Avery Holton,et al.  Commenting on Health: A Framing Analysis of User Comments in Response to Health Articles Online , 2014, Journal of health communication.

[8]  Judee K. Burgoon,et al.  The Temporal Effects of Story and Statistical Evidence on Belief Change , 1994 .

[9]  W. Timothy Coombs,et al.  An Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Emotions: Affect and Crises , 2005 .

[10]  M. Holbrook,et al.  Assessing the Role of Emotions as Mediators of Consumer Responses to Advertising , 1987 .

[11]  BETTY KAMAN LEE,et al.  Audience-Oriented Approach to Crisis Communication : A Study of Hong Kong Consumers ’ Evaluation of an Organizational Crisis , 2004 .

[12]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  behaviors on the perceived credibility of web-based information The role of site features, user attributes, and information verification , 2007 .

[13]  Matthew W. Seeger,et al.  Communication and Organizational Crisis , 2003 .

[14]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. , 2007 .

[15]  Karla K. Gower,et al.  How do the news media frame crises? A content analysis of crisis news coverage , 2009 .

[16]  Emily Thorson,et al.  CHANGING PATTERNS OF NEWS CONSUMPTION AND PARTICIPATION , 2008 .

[17]  S. Shyam Sundar,et al.  News cues: Information scent and cognitive heuristics , 2007, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[18]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  Social and Heuristic Approaches to Credibility Evaluation Online , 2010 .

[19]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[20]  W. T. Coombs,et al.  An Analytic Framework for Crisis Situations: Better Responses From a Better Understanding of the Situation , 1998 .

[21]  Eun-Ju Lee,et al.  What Do Others’ Reactions to News on Internet Portal Sites Tell Us? Effects of Presentation Format and Readers’ Need for Cognition on Reality Perception , 2010, Commun. Res..

[22]  Seoyeon Hong,et al.  Computer-mediated persuasion in online reviews: Statistical versus narrative evidence , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[23]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[24]  Duane T. Wegener,et al.  Attitudes and attitude change. , 1997, Annual review of psychology.

[25]  G. Holden,et al.  Parental attitudes toward child rearing: Instruments, issues, and implications. , 1989 .

[26]  Hyonjin Ahn.  THE EFFECT OF ONLINE NEWS STORY COMMENTS ON OTHER READERS' ATTITUDES: FOCUSING ON THE CASE OF INCONGRUENCE BETWEEN NEWS TONE AND COMMENTS , 2011 .

[27]  Andreas Schwarz,et al.  How publics use social media to respond to blame games in crisis communication: The Love Parade tragedy in Duisburg 2010 , 2012 .

[28]  B. Newell.  Judgment Under Uncertainty , 2013 .

[29]  Malcolm R. Parks,et al.  Cues Filtered Out, Cues Filtered In: Computer-Mediated Communication and Relationships , 2002 .

[30]  L. Festinger,et al.  A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , 2017 .

[31]  A. Ian Glendon,et al.  Stakeholder reactions to company crisis communication and causes , 2010 .

[32]  Essi Pöyry,et al.  Can we get from liking to buying? Behavioral differences in hedonic and utilitarian Facebook usage , 2013, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[33]  W. T. Coombs,et al.  Impact of Past Crises on Current Crisis Communication , 2004 .

[34]  Eun-Mee Kim,et al.  The Effect of Replies in Internet News on the Audience , 2006 .

[35]  Bin Gu,et al.  Do online reviews matter? - An empirical investigation of panel data , 2008, Decis. Support Syst..

[36]  Daniel A. Gruber,et al.  The real-time power of Twitter: Crisis management and leadership in an age of social media , 2015 .

[37]  Moon J. Lee,et al.  Do Online Comments Influence the Public's Attitudes Toward an Organization? Effects of Online Comments Based on Individuals’ Prior Attitudes , 2015, The Journal of psychology.

[38]  W. T. Coombs,et al.  Protecting Organization Reputations During a Crisis: The Development and Application of Situational Crisis Communication Theory , 2007 .

[39]  Eyun‐Jung Ki,et al.  Developing a Valid and Reliable Measure of Organizational Crisis Responsibility , 2013 .

[40]  Keri K. Stephens,et al.  If the Organizations Won't Give Us Information…: The Use of Multiple New Media for Crisis Technical Translation and Dialogue , 2009 .

[41]  F. Bass.  A new product growth model for consumer durables , 1976 .

[42]  Miriam J. Metzger,et al.  Trusting expert- versus user-generated ratings online: The role of information volume, valence, and consumer characteristics , 2013, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[43]  Dee T. Allsop,et al.  Word-of-Mouth Research: Principles and Applications , 2007, Journal of Advertising Research.

[44]  Frank M. Bass,et al.  A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[45]  Derek L. Hansen,et al.  Impact of Popularity Indications on Readers' Selective Exposure to Online News , 2005 .

[46]  Patti M. Valkenburg,et al.  Message Variability and Heterogeneity: A Core Challenge for Communication Research , 2015, Communication yearbook.

[47]  Sherry J. Holladay,et al.  Helping Crisis Managers Protect Reputational Assets , 2002 .

[48]  Doori Song,et al.  “How negative becomes less negative”: : Understanding the effects of comment valence and response sidedness in social media , 2016 .

[49]  Sandi W. Smith,et al.  Affective and cognitive reactions to narrative versus statistical evidence organ donation messages. , 1998 .

[50]  Kimo Ah Yun,et al.  Examining the persuasive effect of statistical messages: A test of mediating relationships , 2003 .

[51]  Soo Young Rieh,et al.  College Students' Credibility Judgments in the Information-Seeking Process , 2008 .

[52]  Diana Adler,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 2016 .

[53]  Soo Young Rieh,et al.  Developing a unifying framework of credibility assessment: Construct, heuristics, and interaction in context , 2008, Inf. Process. Manag..

[54]  J. Mccroskey.  A summary of experimental research on the effects of evidence in persuasive communication , 1969 .

[55]  S. Shyam Sundar,et al.  Effects of Online Health Sources on Credibility and Behavioral Intentions , 2010, Commun. Res..

[56]  Cheonsoo Kim,et al.  Like, comment, and share on Facebook: How each behavior differs from the other , 2017 .

[57]  Se-Hoon Jeong,et al.  Public's Responses to an oil spill accident: A test of the attribution theory and situational crisis communication theory , 2009 .

[58]  Natalie Henrich,et al.  Web news readers comments: Towards developing a methodology for using on-line comments in social inquiry , 2013 .

[59]  H. Simon,et al.  American Association for Public Opinion Research Bandwagon and Underdog Effects and the Possibility of Election Predictions , 2009 .

[60]  Sherry J. Holladay,et al.  Communication and Attributions in a Crisis: An Experimental Study in Crisis Communication , 1996 .

[61]  J. Nel,et al.  Customer–brand engagement and Facebook fan-page “Like”-intention , 2017 .

[62]  Stephan Winter,et al.  They Came, They Liked, They Commented: Social Influence on Facebook News Channels , 2015, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[63]  B. Weiner.  An attributional theory of motivation and emotion , 1986 .

[64]  Neil Thurman,et al.  Making ‘The Daily Me’: Technology, economics and habit in the mainstream assimilation of personalized news , 2011 .

[65]  Denise J. Luethge,et al.  Toward an integrated framework for online consumer behavior and decision making process: A review , 2010 .

[66]  C. Fombrun,et al.  The Reputation QuotientSM: A multi-stakeholder measure of corporate reputation , 2000 .

[67]  Hyunjin Seo,et al.  Readers as gatekeepers of online news: Brazil, China, and the United States , 2010 .

[68]  Scott D. Martin.  Share, like, tweet and cheer: An examination of social media usage and the NFL , 2012 .

[69]  J. Cooper,et al.  A New Look at Dissonance Theory , 1984 .

[70]  C. I. Hovland,et al.  Social Judgment: Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Communication and Attitude Change , 1981 .

[71]  W. Wayne Fu,et al.  Aggregate bandwagon effect on online videos' viewership: Value uncertainty, popularity cues, and heuristics , 2011, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..