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. 2021 Jan 13;17(1):49-57.
doi: 10.5709/acp-0316-x. eCollection 2021.

The Effect of Reviewer Profile Photo on Purchase Decision: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Xiaoli Tang  1 , Zhijie Song  1
Affiliations

The Effect of Reviewer Profile Photo on Purchase Decision: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Xiaoli Tang et al. Adv Cogn Psychol. .

Abstract

Although the number of studies on online reviews is growing, the impact of reviewer photo on consumer purchase decision-making has not yet been examined systematically. In particular, the underlying neural mechanisms have remained underexplored. Thus, the present study investigated whether and how reviewer photos affects consumers to make a purchase decision by using eventrelated potentials (ERPs). At the behavioral level, participants demonstrated a higher purchase rate with a shorter RT in situations with reviewer photos compared to situations without reviewer photos. Meanwhile, at the neural level, compared with situations without reviewer photos, situations with reviewer photos attracted more rapid attention resources at the early automatic processing phase, which induced a greater P2 amplitude, then mobilized more sustained attention allocation at the cognitive monitoring phase due to its evolutionary significance which elicited a more negative N2 amplitude, and finally resulted in a better evaluative categorization with higher motivational and emotional arousal due to its social presence which evoked a larger late positive potential (LPP) amplitude at the late elaborate cognitive processing phase. Those results illuminated the neural pathway of purchase decision-making when consumers were exposed in different conditions of reviewer photo. Moreover, the current study provided evidence for the underlying influence of reviewer photo on purchase decision-making in online shopping.

Keywords: LPP; N2; P2; online shopping; purchase decision; reviewer photo.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental task. Participants were instructed to make a purchase decision toward reviewers with different profile photos (present vs. absent).
Table 1
Table 1
t Test Results of For Each Condition
Figure 2
Figure 2
Behavioral results. The purchase rate (left) and reaction time (right) for each condition. The error bars indicate the SEM. *** p < .001, * p < .05.
Table 2
Table 2
ANOVA Results of P2, N2 and LPP for Each Eondition
Figure 3
Figure 3
Event-related potential (ERP) results. Grand-averaged ERP waveforms of P2, N2 and LPP components from three representative electrodes (Fz, FCz, and Cz) in two conditions time-locked to the onset of the reviewer photo stimulus.
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