{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T15:18:45Z","timestamp":1771859925827,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771804800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Guangxi Philosophy and Social Science Planning Research Fund","award":["22FGL021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["22FGL021"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JTAER"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\u201cCashback for positive reviews\u201d is a common form of e-commerce manipulation that may undermine consumer trust and distort the market evaluation system. However, there is a lack of systematic research on how it influences consumers\u2019 willingness to provide evaluations through psychological mechanisms. This study, based on the Stimulus\u2013Organism\u2013Response (S-O-R) framework, integrates the theories of psychological contract and cognitive dissonance. An empirical analysis based on 460 valid questionnaire responses was performed using SPSS and AMOS, yielding the following findings. (1) Negative emotions, including disappointment, anger, and regret, significantly triggered psychological contract breach, both transactional and relational. (2) Psychological contract breach reduced consumers\u2019 willingness to provide positive reviews and lowered their store evaluation behavior, fully mediating the relationship between negative emotions and evaluation behavior. (3) Cognitive dissonance partially moderated the pathway from negative emotions through psychological contract breach to review behavior. This study elucidated the influence mechanism of negative emotions in \u201ccashback for positive review\u201d scenarios on consumers\u2019 evaluation behavior, established a \u201cmerchant-user\u201d online review relationship model, and provided practical and managerial implications for fostering mutually beneficial outcomes among platforms, merchants, and consumers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jtaer21020073","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T14:05:11Z","timestamp":1771855511000},"page":"73","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["\u201cCashback for Positive Reviews\u201d: Boon or Bane? An Empirical Study on the Impact of Negative Emotions in Review Manipulation on Evaluation Behavior"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Yitao","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Guilin 541004, China"},{"name":"Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhixi","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Guilin 541004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-0187-7813","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Li","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Guilin 541004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhijie","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, No. 1 Jinji Road, Guilin 541004, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"117","article-title":"Can Reward Change Consumers\u2019 Online Reviews?\u2014The Impact of Reward Program on E-word of Mouth","volume":"30","author":"Zeng","year":"2018","journal-title":"Manag. 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