In this paper, an experiment is used to evaluate the effect
that a firm’s WOM incentive program has on listeners. Results indicate that when a listener is
aware that a firm is rewarding its customers for engaging in WOM, they view such individuals
as having lower source trustworthiness and source altruism. Explicit disclosure of the incentive
improves trustworthiness as compared to not disclosing the incentive, but has no effect on
altruism.