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People Are Complete Suckers For Online Reviews (nypost.com)
schwit1 shared an article from the New York Post:
No reviews, no revenue. That's the key takeaway from a new study published in Psychological Science, which finds that if two similar products have the same rating, online shoppers will buy the one with more reviews... "[When] faced with a choice between two low-scoring products, one with many reviews and one with few, the statistics say we should actually go for the product with few reviews, since there's more of a chance it's not really so bad," wrote researcher Derek Powell of Stanford University, lead author of the report. In other words, when there's only a handful of reviews, a few bad ones break the curve and bring down the overall rating. "But participants in our studies did just the opposite: They went for the more popular product, despite the fact that they should've been even more certain it was of low quality," he wrote.
Matt Moog, CEO of PowerReviews, previously conducted a study with Northwestern University [PDF] that drew from an even larger data pool of 400 million consumers, which also found that the more reviews there are of a product, the more likely it is that a customer will purchase that product... He has also found that customers who read reviews often click the bad ones first. "They want to read what's the worst thing people have to say about this," he said... Most online shoppers (97 percent to be exact) say reviews influence their buying decisions, according to Fan & Fuel Digital Marketing Group, which also found that 92 percent of consumers will hesitate to buy something if it has no customer reviews at all.
Matt Moog, CEO of PowerReviews, previously conducted a study with Northwestern University [PDF] that drew from an even larger data pool of 400 million consumers, which also found that the more reviews there are of a product, the more likely it is that a customer will purchase that product... He has also found that customers who read reviews often click the bad ones first. "They want to read what's the worst thing people have to say about this," he said... Most online shoppers (97 percent to be exact) say reviews influence their buying decisions, according to Fan & Fuel Digital Marketing Group, which also found that 92 percent of consumers will hesitate to buy something if it has no customer reviews at all.
bad news sells. more bad news sells more.
I think it's a bit more complex than that. Oftentimes, you can determine from poor reviews exactly what the shortcomings are, and decide if those shortcomings affect your intended use of the product. If a competing product has no reviews, then you have no way of knowing what the shortcomings are.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
If one product has 12 reviews and one 45k reviews, the 12 review has 5* and the 45k review has 4* I'd be more likely to buy the 45k review one. It's simply significantly harder to astroturf and bot 45k reviews than 12. Online typically all you have to go on is a shitty picture, product details that are nearly always incomplete and exaggerated, and reviews. The reviews are the least shitty way to not get ripped off. For the record, yes I know that many reviews on most every site are fakes, paid for the review, or bots.
Plus sometimes the reviews are pure comedy gold and are worth reading on their own which can inspire some sales on their own.
If something has 1000 reviews, I know that the bulk of those are likely to be legitimate. If someone has 3 reviews, I have no idea how accurate the reviews are. More reviews = more sample data of user experience, and more data means that "wrong" reviews (reviews that don't reflect the user experience) are obscured. If you were presented with 2 studies where one used a sample of 5 people and the other used a sample of 5000 people, which results would you trust more? Reviews are just a less controlled study.
I view products with few reviews to be a complete unknown in terms of quality. So if there are similar products with many reviews (and a decent rating) I'm going to prefer those, because (in theory) they're more of a known quantity.
It's insightful and accurately reports work conducted by impartial scientists with deep expertise in the field.
Five stars
Yelp tried to extort them a few times, so this restaurant gives 50% off on pizza if you give them a 1-star review:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/botto...
http://www.bottobistro.com/REW...
http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.co...
http://time.com/money/3398188/...
[usual spam]
APK
That's a very good and pertinent example of what TFA is about, and why people skip good reviews. Either they are sockpuppets, or empty praise telling us nothing of value.
It's the bad reviews that put meat on the bone. A review saying "it has problems with X, but here's my workaround" is worth a thousand reviews saying "It's the best thing since sliced bread!". Counter-intuitive as it may seem, constructive bad reviews facilitate more sales, and empty praise doesn't.
The three main kinds of mistruth.
With more reviews, the buyer has a better idea -exactly- what's bad about the product thus has a better chance of making an educated decision about buying it.
The article and study are examples of misusing statistics. The correlation between number of reviews and purchases niether tests nor demonstrates a causal relationship from the former to the latter, and even if it did it does not demonstrate the -claimed- causal relatinoship.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
I find that some of the bad reviews are actually people complaining of stupid stuff like "hard to set up/install/etc.". Worth reading the reviews.
...suggestions for competitors products. I then make my own determination after checking them out.
At one point in the 1970s it was my misfortune to be employed as a Filter Queen vacuum cleaner salesman (regrets, I've had a few). Anyways at the time I was taught that some people "have to be told to buy" something, even if it's from a perfect stranger. They can't make the decision on their own as most people are told what to do their whole lives. That and "Advertising is the best way to sell something, especially if it's no fucking good".
These might not be the proper place to complain about non-product issues, but they happen and they drag down the overall rating of the product, itself. Who knows, maybe some bad reviews are hoping for an offer from the maker to improve their ratings.
However, I do pay more attention to the bad reviews and the reasons given. If there is a pattern of failures, then I'll avoid a product. And I pay them more attention than I do to the good reviews, which even now often appear to be fake, exaggerated, written by idiots ("I've just received such'n'such, it looks wonderful though I haven't tried to use it yet - here's 5 *'s") or clearly from professional reviewers.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Just based on experience products with very few reviews are sometimes fakes. The more reviews something has the less likely it is to be a fake product. At least with many reviews over time you see also see if the manufacturer has been fixing the problems and also what kinds of problems people have and can decide if those problems will matter to you.
Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD!
There is a chance it could be worse too. I've bought things that were useless junk that a few people made relatively good reviews. When I buy stuff from harbor freight I know exactly what I am getting, a throwaway tool that I might use a couple times. People don't always want the best...
love is just extroverted narcissism
1) I read the bad reviews first to see how many of the bad reviews are idiots. For example, I purchased a product that adapted VGA to video. There was a switch on the side of the box for NTSC/PAL. A number of N. American consumers indicated the box didn't work and that the picture was monochrome (black & white). Well, those folks obviously didn't flip the switch from PAL (as shipped) to NTSC because monochrome is a symptom of video format mismatch (simplying a bit to illustrate the point). So, I discount the 1* reviews with that reasoning that tells me they used the product incorrectly. 2) I look for the proportion of 5* and 1* reviews. If they're about equal, that's a danger sign. If they trail off in a nice log power type curve, so much the better. Those who mention IMDB being seeded with a lot of 10% reviews, beware because the studios know how much word of mouth matters today so they plant reviews that make Baywatch sound like The Godfather. Any "reviewer" who only gives 1 or 10* reviews is suspect in my book. 3) I look for reviews that closely match my use case. 4) I look for reviews that are clearly fake. 5) Any review that is 1* due to price I completely ignore (prices fluctuate and my price point may be very different than yours. Review the actual product, not the price. *I* decide whether the price is worth it. Unfortunately, Google Play's app store doesn't allow one to look at the negative reviews only. Very annoying. Maybe Google should look at this research and understand that low * reviews serve a purpose.
First of all if two items have the same overall score there's no obvious way to break the tie. To assert that "statistically" people ought to buy the one with fewer reviews, because it might be better than rated, ignores the fact that it might just as easily be WORSE than rated. If I had no choice and all other things were truly equal, I'd probably choose the item with more reviews. There's less chance it is an outstanding product, but also less chance that it'll end up being a total waste of money.
News at eleven
Requiem for the American Dream
P.S.=> EAT YER WORDS arth1
Whoosh!
The point was that pointless praise does not work - it's the bad reviews that work, and constructive bad reviews help sell a product. Mindless praise is worthless - people don't look at that. This is a prime example - you're making my (and TFA's) point by posting this!
You apparently think that repeating praise from others is going to sway people. It isn't. They'll look at bad reviews and what those say, and whether the product is still good, knowing the worst.
Anyone who attempts to drown bad reviews in praise and counter-attacks against individuals come across as feeling they have an inferior product, else they wouldn't feel a need to do that. You are a prime example here. The lady doth protest too much.
Why are people buying a product with crummy reviews anyway? Sounds like they don't have any choice, so perhaps they are deciding they'd rather get something that works poorly, than something that might not work at all.
It would be nice if an extension could be created to work on eliminating them to provide protection from the subconscious impact. But, they are very thoroughly embedded - especially all of the little star ratings scattered about.
I tend to not buy the item with the most reviews, but it's not directly due to the number of reviews, not in the sense of a causal relationship. It's because I check tend to be buying the newer product, and the product with the most reviews is usually the older product.
But it depends on the product. If we are talking about restaurants, a place with many reviews can be because it's a successful restaurant.
I mostly tend to go with professional reviewers that have a column in the newspaper.
Yelp restaurant reviews seem to be either revenge because the waitress would not sit in someone's lap, or glowing praise from someone who had the waitress sit in their lap. Or reviews like "I don't like fish, but I ordered it anyway. It tasted like fish to me, so I give it one star."
For hotel reviews only the negative 1-2 rating matter. They often will have some very significant information about the upkeep and condition of the carpet, cleaning, etc. The exception is when the recent good reviews mention a recent remodeling.
The worst are reviews of doctors. They are almost all comically deranged. Maybe that's because they're written by sick people.
I use any resources I can find before I buy something that costs more than $50. Read reviews of the product on several different retailers' sites. See if any of them are written exactly the same. I've seen the exact same review on three different sites for the same product. I hope the guy got paid for writing them.
If there's a link to a pdf of the manual, it's good to read the manual. A manual gives you some idea about how hard or easy the product is to install, put together, and use. It gives you a much more detailed description than you can find on a retailer's website. Check out the "troubleshooting" part to see what kind of problems you can expect and how easy they are to fix.
If the retail site doesn't link to the manual, go to the manufacturer's site to find one. There's usually one there.
If all I'm buying is lentils from Amazon, I just go by name brand and reputation. Reviews don't even come into play for a lot of items.
when they start pointing and clicking, they "think" it makes them intelligent. i am so glad there is not a test you have to pass before you can purchase an electronic device ie: a computer to put in your home, let alone get on the Internet. we would all be out of a job and the ceo's of oem's would say wtf.
Unless I really like the product. I don't generally take the time to do a good review. If I'm only satisfied with the product, I don't bother with a review. I have other things to do.
Most of the time, if I take the time to post a review, it's because I'm not particularly happy with my purchase.
we should actually go for the product with few reviews, since there’s more of a chance it’s not really so bad...
Instructions unclear. Made me buy low quality dildo instead. Would not read again.
1 star
Most fake reviews seem to be just 1-2 liners.
If i HAVE to buy a product and the choice is two 1 star product, i will buy the one which has the more buyer because there is a better chance the company does not go under leaving me with no support. If you cannot get quality, then go for the mass.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
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I was looking at a book on Amazon. One reviewer gave it one star. Their review: "Cover was torn."
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