We examine the impact of existing brand attitudes on consumer processing of online reviews.

Four empirical studies find evidence for a biased assimilation effect of consumer processing of brand-related information.

Consumers accept belief-confirming reviews and rate them as more persuasive but discount belief-disconfirming reviews.

We study different online review settings and identify boundary conditions of this effect.

Other-focus and cognitive impairment serve as moderators that can alter the intensity of the biased assimilation effect.