Do fake reviews promote consumers' purchase intention?

Although fake reviews are ubiquitous in the information interface that consumers browse, there is little research to understand the role of fake reviews in the online purchase process. Therefore, in this paper, we try to reveal the changes of consumers' online purchase intention after reading fake reviews in different situations. In the three studies, we found that for utilitarian products, the low fake degree of reviews could improve online purchase intention, while for hedonic products, the high fake degree of reviews could improve online purchase intention. And perceived value plays a mediating role in this process. Besides, for products with high brand awareness, fake reviews do not affect consumers' purchase intention, while for products with low brand awareness, the higher fake degree of reviews, the lower consumers' purchase intention. This paper are helpful for consumers to make more rational decisions in the face of fake information, have reference significance for marketers to choose reasonable ways to promote products in specific situations, and help optimize the supervision mechanism of online reviews.