Online Review Helpfulness: Impact of Reviewer Image

Despite the growing number of studies on online reviews, the impact of visual cues on consumer’s evaluation of review helpfulness has remained underexplored. This paper examines the effect of reviewer image, along with previously examined review attributes, such as review depth, valence, and equivocality, on review helpfulness. With a sample of 1,400 reviews from mobile gaming applications, we report that reviewer image can significantly enhance consumers’ evaluation of review helpfulness. We did not find significant differential effects of image types (i.e. self, family, or random images) on review helpfulness. The results call for further research on the impact of visual cues as well as reviewer attributes on review helpfulness.