Washington, October 14 : People can sometimes make recommendations influential by expressing uncertainty, says a new study.

According to a report in the Journal of Consumer Research, making suggestions with confidence may not be convincing when recommending products or services.

Authors Uma R. Karmarkar and Zakary L. Tormala, Stanford University, examined the factors that can make people''s recommendations more or less influential with three experiments involving participants with a restaurant review from either a novice or an expert.

The authors said: "Participants found the restaurant review more surprising and unexpected when a novice reviewer expressed certainty, or when an expert reviewer expressed uncertainty.

"Investigating further, we found that when the level of certainty expressed was incongruent with the source''s expertise, it increased involvement with the restaurant review."

They wrote: "In the context of product or service reviews, being confident in your opinion does not necessarily mean that you''ll be perceived as more convincing.

"Paradoxically, an expert or "gold star" reviewer on a website could draw more people in to his review if he was willing to be modest or admit uncertainty about his views. But for all that attention to pay off, he''d have to ensure he had good strong reasons supporting his opinion." (ANI)