Consumer lying in online reviews: recent evidence

TL;DR

This paper investigates the prevalence and characteristics of consumer lying in online reviews, using a trust-based instrument and a predictive model to understand deceptive behavior in digital feedback.

Contribution

It introduces a new proxy for lying in online reviews and develops a predictive model based on trust measures, advancing understanding of deceptive online consumer behavior.

Findings

Identifies characteristics of consumers likely to lie in reviews

Constructs a predictive model for untruthful reviews

Provides insights into measuring and monitoring deceptive online behavior

Abstract

The persistence of lying by some consumers in their online posts of experiences with businesses is problematic, and taints the global pool of information that is used for decision making by people that assume they are true accounts of experiences. This study is based on data from my dissertation about fake online Google reviews of restaurants (Berry, 2024), and leverages an instrument that quantifies the trust of people. The findings are based on a sample of n=351, and provide a general proxy for lying in online reviews, and sketch out the characteristics of a typical person that has the propensity to be untruthful. A predictive model of posting untrue online reviews is constructed. The findings have wider implications for the study and monitoring of deceptive behavior, including the propagation of misinformation, and a means of quantifying the potential for antisocial behavior as measured by the trust of people instrument in Berry (2024). Directions for future research and limitations are also discussed.