Online review helpfulness: Impact of reviewer profile image

Despite the growing number of studies on online reviews, the impact of visual cues on consumer's evaluation of review helpfulness has remained underexplored. It is not yet known whether and how images influence the way online reviews are perceived. This paper introduces and empirically examines the potential effects of reviewer profile image, a photo/image displayed next to the reviewer name, on review helpfulness by drawing on the decorative and information functions of images. With a sample of 2178 reviews from mobile gaming applications, we report that reviewer profile image can significantly enhance consumer's evaluation of review helpfulness; whereas there is no differential effect among image types (i.e. self, family, or random images). Interestingly, the effect of reviewer profile image on review helpfulness is moderated by review length, but not review valence and equivocality. Results suggest that reviewer profile image enhances the perception of review helpfulness by serving mainly as a visual decoration that creates affective responses rather than identity information. •We introduce, systematically examine, and report a significant effect of reviewer profile image on review helpfulness.•We introduce two functions for the impact of reviewer profile image.•We examine the differential effect of image type and report similar impact for all types of images (including self-image).•We test the interaction effect between review attributes and reviewer profile image.•We use data from gaming mobile applications.