Could Amazon Reviews Be Corrupt?

adeelarshad82 writes "In the first academic study of its kind, Trevor Pinch, Cornell University professor of sociology and of science and technology studies, independently surveyed 166 of Amazon's top 1,000 reviewers, examining everything from demographics to motives. What he discovered was 85 percent of those surveyed had been approached with free merchandise from authors, agents or publishers. Amazon is encouraging reviewers to receive free products through Amazon Vine, an invitation-only program in which the top 1,000 reviewers are offered a catalog of free products to review. John Dvorak puts up an argument which hints that some of these Amazon reviews may be corrupt."

Comments

Re:this should have been obvoius

[Elbereth]

A few probably are, but many people simply get called trolls or shills because they dare to cross the groupthink. Try it some day. You'll see. It seems to be a bit of a Slashdot stereotype that one's most well-intentioned, tactful posts get modded as troll, while the actual troll posts get modded insightful. It's a bit of a mindfuck the first time it happens to you.

mod do38

[Anonymous Coward]

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