Published papers

Abstract Online grocery shopping has become increasingly important in daily life. Consumers use the helpfulness of electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) to reduce uncertainty and risk in online grocery shopping. Emotions such as positive arousal (e.g., energised) and calmness (e.g., relaxed) are often found in the eWOM of food products. However, little is known about the influence of emotions on eWOM helpfulness and how the effects of emotions on the helpfulness of online reviews differ in cultures. This study conducted an experiment to examine the impact of positive arousal and calmness on the helpfulness of eWOM regarding healthy and unhealthy foods in Japan and the USA. We found that cultural factors influenced the effect of arousal on eWOM helpfulness. For Japanese participants, positive eWOM with low arousal was more helpful than that with high arousal. In contrast, for US participants, positive eWOM with high arousal was more helpful than that with low arousal. In both countries, credibility mediated the relationship between arousal and review helpfulness. This study extends the literature on eWOM helpfulness and affect valuation theory. Our findings provide insights for companies on using eWOM in advertising campaigns and for consumers on writing helpful eWOM.

Two types of affect influence consumers' attention: incidental affect unrelated to a particular perception or judgment and integral affect directly related to the particular options under consideration. Although integral and incidental affect likely coexist on a regular basis, the claim that both concurrently guide consumers' attention has thus far received little attention. To fill this gap, the present study investigated the effects of the interplay of integral and incidental affect on the visual processing of food. Food labels play an essential role in attracting consumer attention. Food labels include sources of integral affect (e.g., food type, pictures), and consumers often view food labels under the influence of incidental affect (e.g., an unrelated anxiety-inducing message or personal experience). According to the appraisal tendency framework, incidental experiences of anxiety can enhance affective processing of food due to the uncertainty associated with anxiety. In our study, participants were first subjected to manipulation of an incidental emotion (anxiety, anger, or neutral). Then, they passively viewed food labels, including pictures and nutrient labels, for hedonic and healthy foods. Subject's eye movements were tracked during this stage of the study. Our results showed that the induction of incidental anxiety, but not anger or neutral feelings, led to greater visual attention on hedonic foods only. These findings shed light on the interplay between incidental and integral affect in consumer information processing, demonstrating that the co-occurrence of incidental anxiety and integral hedonic feelings enhance visual attention to food.