Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
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The second set of stimulus material contained a set of four bogus online traveler reviews. To induce the 
perception of non-diagnosticity, a combination of four online traveler reviews messages were created with two 
positively valenced messages and two negatively valenced messages describing two selected hotel attributes (e.g., 
service experience and cleanliness of the hotel room). Pilot study suggests that the magnitude of the valence of each 
piece of the reviews was roughly equivocal. The positive and negative traveler reviews were alternated and 
counterbalanced to control for any possible order effect.
To induce varying levels of perceived salience of source cues, presence/absence of source cues was 
manipulated by revealing/hiding personal identifying information of the traveler who ostensibly posted the online 
reviews. Such personal identifying information included the traveler’s name, location of residence, dates of the 
hotel stay and the date when the reviews was posted. Participants were randomly assigned to either the presence or 
absence condition.