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Mass-scale emotionality reveals human behaviour and marketplace success

Author

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  • Matthew D. Rocklage

    (University of Massachusetts)

  • Derek D. Rucker

    (Northwestern University)

  • Loran F. Nordgren

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

Online reviews promise to provide people with immediate access to the wisdom of the crowds. Yet, half of all reviews on Amazon and Yelp provide the most positive rating possible, despite human behaviour being substantially more varied in nature. We term the challenge of discerning success within this sea of positive ratings the ‘positivity problem’. Positivity, however, is only one facet of individuals’ opinions. We propose that one solution to the positivity problem lies with the emotionality of people’s opinions. Using computational linguistics, we predict the box office revenue of nearly 2,400 movies, sales of 1.6 million books, new brand followers across two years of Super Bowl commercials, and real-world reservations at over 1,000 restaurants. Whereas star ratings are an unreliable predictor of success, emotionality from the very same reviews offers a consistent diagnostic signal. More emotional language was associated with more subsequent success.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew D. Rocklage & Derek D. Rucker & Loran F. Nordgren, 2021. "Mass-scale emotionality reveals human behaviour and marketplace success," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 1323-1329, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:5:y:2021:i:10:d:10.1038_s41562-021-01098-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01098-5
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    Cited by:

    1. Rodrigo S Dias & Eesha Sharma & Gavan J Fitzsimons, 2022. "Spending and Happiness: The Role of Perceived Financial Constraints [Does Spending Money on Others Promote Happiness?: A Registered Replication Report]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(3), pages 373-388.
    2. Kim, Da Yeon & Kim, Sang Yong, 2022. "The impact of customer-generated evaluation information on sales in online platform-based markets," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Jonah Berger & Grant Packard & Reihane Boghrati & Ming Hsu & Ashlee Humphreys & Andrea Luangrath & Sarah Moore & Gideon Nave & Christopher Olivola & Matthew Rocklage, 2022. "Marketing insights from text analysis," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 365-377, September.
    4. Qin, Chang-Xiong & Liu, Zhao, 2022. "Reference price effect of partially similar online products in the consideration stage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 70-81.

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