Two social psychological theories are contrasted and different predictions are derived concerning the relation between self and interpersonal evaluations. The prediction from self-esteem theory is that the higher an individual's evaluation of himself, the less his tendency to reciprocate evaluations from others, whereas the prediction from self-consistency theory is that the higher the individual's evaluation of himself, the greater his tendency to reciprocate evaluations from others. Studies bearing on these predictions are reviewed, and the evidence tends to support self-esteem theory. Furthermore, two extensions of the assumptions of self-esteem theory are presented and discussed in terms of accounting for results which apparently support self-consistency theory. Finally, whether or not the experimental subject is the direct target of another person's actions appears to distinguish esteem results from consistency results. The implications of this distinction for other problems of person perception and social evaluation are discussed. A general conclusion is that cognitive consistency theories may be somewhat overworked as explanatory frameworks for the study of social evaluations. Although the interpersonal events involving the evaluations an individual receives from other people occur experimentally and in the "real world" with some regularity, confusions arise in attempting to explain these regularities. We observe that people typically talk more (e.g., Bavelas, Hastorf, Gross, & Kite,

Self- and interpersonal evaluations: esteem theories versus consistency theories

The manner in which an individual's self-perceptions affect related self-presentations was investigated. One hundred and twenty subjects believed that they would participate in a group task where their individual performance would either be known to the group or be completely anonymous. On the basis of bogus feedback from prior tests, subjects expected to perform either extremely well or very poorly on the group task; control groups received no such feedback. Before the task began, group members exchanged personal information that allowed them to vary their self-presentations. Factor analysis revealed two self-presentational factors: competence and interpersonal relations. A Performance Expectations X Anonymity interaction was obtained on self-presentational claims to personal competence. Under public performance conditions (where future public events could invalidate an unrealistically positive self-presentation), self-presentations were consistent with subjects' expectations of actual performance. However, under anonymous conditions, self-presentations were quite favorable and unaffected by expectations of actual performance. The results support an incentive model and fail to support a consistency model. Subjects seemed to desire as self-enhancing and approval gaining a public image as possible but conceded to the demands of public reality when necessary.

Self-presentation: managing the impression of consistency when reality interferes with self-enhancement.

Transmission of positive and negative feedback to subordinates: A laboratory investigation

Communication of interpersonal evaluations.

Purpose




This paper aims to examine the factors contributing to the helpfulness of online hotel reviews and to measure the impact of manager response on the helpfulness of online hotel reviews.




Design/methodology/approach




This investigation used a linear regression model that drew upon 56,284 consumer reviews and 10,797 manager responses from 1,405 hotels on TripAdvisor.com for analysis.




Findings




The helpfulness of online hotel reviews is negatively affected by rating and number of sentences in a review, but positively affected by manager response and reviewer experience in terms of reviewer status, years of membership, and number of cities visited. Manager response moderates the influence of reviewer experience on the helpfulness of online hotel reviews.




Research limitations/implications




Using the data from hotels in five major cities in Texas, the results may not be necessarily generalized to other markets, but the important role that manager response plays in online reviews is assessed with big data analysis.




Practical implications




The results suggest hospitality managers should strategically identify opinion leaders among reviewers and proactively influence the helpfulness of the reviews by providing manager response. Additionally, this study makes recommendations to webmasters of social media platforms in terms of advancing the algorithm of featuring the most helpful online reviews.




Originality/value




This study is at the frontier of research to explain how hotel managers can proactively identify opinion leaders among consumers and use manager response to influence the helpfulness of consumer reviews. Additionally, the results also provide new insights to the influence of reviewer demographic background on the helpfulness of online reviews. Finally, this study analyzed a large data set on a scale that was not available in traditional guest survey studies, responding to the call for big data applications in the hospitality industry.

Stephen C. Jones

Papers

Some determinants of interpersonal evaluating behavior.

Self-revealing events and interpersonal evaluations.

Commitment to self-appraisal and interpersonal evaluations.