Paper: “Culture, Conformity and Emotional Suppression in Online Reviews” by Hong et al., 2016

“While Americans say, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” the Japanese say, “the nail that stands out gets pounded down.”

In other words, in the States, people who complain the loudest get the most attention while in Japan, people are discouraged to express personal opinions loudly especially if they don’t fit the community expectations. This phenomenon illustrates the differences between individualist (American) and collectivist (Japanese) cultures as defined by Hofstede (2001) and House et al. (2004). But this post is not entirely about cultural differences – it is about their influence on online reviews. Continue reading Culture, Conformity and Emotional Suppression in Online Reviews →