A series of controlled experiments examine how the strategy of incentivizing reviews influences consumers’ expressions of positivity. Incentivized (vs. unincentivized) reviews contained a greater proportion of positive relative to negative emotion across a variety of product and service experiences (e.g., videos, service providers, consumer packaged goods companies). This effect occurred for both financial and nonfinancial incentives and when assessing review content across multiple natural language processing tools and human judgments. Incentives influence review content by modifying the experience of writing reviews. That is, when incentives are associated with review writing, they cause the positive affect that results from receiving an incentive to transfer to the review-writing experience, making review writing more enjoyable. In line with this process, the effect of an incentive on review positivity attenuates when incentives are weakly (vs. strongly) associated with review writing (i.e., incentive for “participating in an experiment” vs. “writing a review”) and when the incentive does not transfer positive affect (i.e., when an incentive is provided by a disliked company). By examining when incentives do (vs. do not) adjust the relative positivity of written reviews, this research offers theoretical insight into the literature on incentives, motivation, and word of mouth, with practical implications for managers.
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