When Images Backfire: The Effect of Customer-Generated Images on Product Rating Dynamics

Customer-generated images (CGIs) on e-commerce platforms have been widely adopted as a promotional tool to persuade customers into purchases. Despite their prevalent applications, the effect of CGIs on customer postpurchase satisfaction has not been extensively examined. This study postulates that CGIs could cause expectation disconfirmation and reduce product uncertainty for customers, therefore making their effect on subsequent product ratings complex. We leverage multiple methods and data sets to gain a better understanding of this problem and underlying mechanisms. We employ a difference-in-differences model to empirically test our hypotheses and find that CGIs lead to a decline in subsequent ratings compared with product ratings not exposed to CGIs. Further heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that high CGI review rating and high aesthetic quality exacerbate the negative effect, whereas reviewer face disclosure could alleviate the negative effect. Through cross-product analyses, we find that the negative effect is more prominent for experience goods (e.g., women’s dresses) than for search goods (e.g., lightning cables). Finally, the underlying mechanism is further validated through a laboratory experiment that shows participants experience significantly higher expectation and more negative disconfirmation in the CGI group with high review ratings, whereas uncertainty reduction effect is insignificant, which collectively explains the decline of subsequent product ratings. These findings suggest that platforms and retailers should be aware of the potential negative effect of CGIs on the rating dynamics and take appropriate measures to circumvent it.