Impact of Fake Review Detection Awareness on Consumer Skepticism, Trust, and Purchase Behaviour: An Empirical Investigation

DOI: https://doie.org/10.10399/APER.2025253001

Authors:

Dr. Kanchan G. Rajput, Dr.Bharath Booshan M S, Dr.Shabista Booshan, Arun Piaus

Keywords:

Fake Review Detection, Platform Trust, Brand Credibility, Consumer Skepticism, Purchase Intention, PLS-SEM, Digital Consumer Behavior, India.

Abstract:

As digital commerce reshapes consumer behavior across India, the growing infiltration of fake reviews poses a serious challenge to trust in online platforms. This empirical study investigates the role of Fake Review Detection Ability (FRDA) in shaping consumer skepticism, platform trust, brand credibility, and purchase intention within Gujarat’s digitally literate demographic. Using a structured questionnaire distributed among 389 management faculty members, the study employed PLS-SEM to examine both direct and mediated effects within a conceptual framework. The findings reveal that FRDA significantly enhances platform trust (β = 0.490), which in turn positively influences brand credibility (β = 0.316) and purchase intention (β = 0.374). Notably, brand credibility emerges as the strongest direct predictor of purchase intent (β = 0.456), while consumer skepticism exhibits weak mediating influence. The model accounts for 50.3% of the variance in purchase intention, underscoring the centrality of trust pathways over skepticism in mitigating the effects of review manipulation. The study offers critical implications for e-commerce platforms, urging the incorporation of transparency-enhancing mechanisms such as AI-based review filters and verified reviewer tags. This research operationalizes FRDA as a novel construct in Indian consumer behavior literature and provides a replicable model for assessing digital trust in emerging e-commerce ecosystems.

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