2008 - Marketing Educators' Association

THE EMPIRICAL IMPACT OF THE TONE AND VOLUME OF RATEMYPROFESSORS.COM
INFORMATION: WHEN SEX MATTERS
Kristen L. Walker and H. Bruce Lammers, California State University, Northridge,
College of Business and Economics, Northridge, CA, 91330-8377;
kristen.walker@csun.edu, bruce.lammers@csun.edu
Marilyn L. Lammers, Glendale Community College, Division of Business,
Glendale, CA, 91208; mlammers@glendale.edu
A message or set of information about an unfamiliar
or neutral target person or product is often presented
in a positive or negative tone, sometimes called the
evaluative direction of the communication (Toy,
1982). In turn, that tone can be amplified and become
more influential as the volume of evidence or
information leaning in the same direction or bias as
the tone becomes more predominant. In legal
settings, volume may sometimes be referred to as
“the preponderance of evidence.” Not surprisingly,
positively toned information tends to increase the
attractiveness of the stimulus and negatively toned
information tends to decrease the attractiveness of
the stimulus; and this differential impact increases as
the biased volume increases (Herr, Kardes, & Kim,
1991; Holmes & Lett, 1977). In addition, there is
some evidence which indicates that negatively toned
information is even more powerful and persuasive
than positively toned information (Wright, 1975).
The primary purpose of this study was to empirically
test the application of well-established notions about
the impact of tone and volume on the attractiveness
of a message target. Our study applied this to the
kind of information setting offered by the ever-popular
RateMyProfessors.com, an online environment
where students can rate professors and, more
importantly to the present study, see the ratings and
comments written by other students about
professors.
This study empirically examines the tone and volume
of positive information and negative information on
the website, RateMyProfessors.com. Using a
straightforward 2 x 2 experiment we hypothesized
that tone and volume would have an interactive effect
ABSTRACT
148
on students’ willingness to recommend a professor:
as the volume of positive information increases from
80 to 100%, students will become more willing to
recommend that professor; but, as the volume of
negative information increases from 80% to 100%,
students will become less willing to recommend that
professor. Moreover, we expected that the differential
impact of tone and volume would be even more
potent for negative information than for
negatively couched information. Initial findings
demonstrate support and highlight differences in tone
and/or volume by gender.
REFERENCES
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/. Accessed
September 19, 2007.
Herr, P., Kardes, F., & Kim, J. (1991). Effects of
word-of-mouth and product-attribute information
on persuasion: An accessibility-diagnosticity
perspective. Journal of Consumer Research, 17,
454-462.
Holmes, J. H., & Lett, J. D. (1977). Product sampling
and word of mouth. Journal of Advertising, 17,
35-40.
Toy, D. R. (1982). Monitoring communication effects:
A cognitive structure/cognitive response
approach. Journal of Consumer Research, 9, 66-
76.
Wright, Peter. (1975). Consumer choice strategies:
Simplifying vs. optimizing.” Journal of Marketing
Research, 12, 60-67.