Effects of Information and Evaluation in Film Criticism

This study reports results of an experiment in which student subjects read various types of film reviews and then reported interest in attending the film. One review had high information content about the film and no positive or negative opinion about it, while other reviews contained high or low information and either positive or negative evaluation. The study finds that higher amounts of information—regardless of evaluation—leads to more interest in the film. Reviews with high information plus positive evaluation lead to most interest, but high information alone raised interest nearly as much.