{"id":97612,"date":"2016-07-15T10:58:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T08:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=97612"},"modified":"2016-07-15T10:59:23","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T08:59:23","slug":"this-is-why-you-cant-trust-online-user-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/97612-this-is-why-you-cant-trust-online-user-ratings","title":{"rendered":"This is why you can’t trust online user ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

High online user ratings don\u2019t actually mean you\u2019re getting a quality product, reports The Harvard Business Review<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“The advent of online reviews has led some to argue<\/a><\/strong> that the power of brands and traditional marketing tactics is waning and consumers are making more informed and rational decisions”.<\/p>\n

The truth of the matter is that these reviews are actually an “illusion of validity” rather than an accurate reflection of the product.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue is the question of whether the review you are reading is actually from a legitimate <\/a><\/strong>consumer and not someone who was paid to manipulate or influence a products reviews.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the reviews available are typically only representative of a small subset of users. “The average rating from this sample does not perfectly coincide with the average rating we would have obtained if all product users had left a review.”<\/p>\n

\n

Variability also tends to be high for multiple reasons, including random noise. A reviewer may rate the wrong product or leave a low rating due to a complaint about shipping, for instance, which has little to do with the product itself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This leads to a case of the “highest highs and the lowest lows” as only those with extremely strong opinions <\/a><\/strong>leave reviews.<\/p>\n

Finally there are issues with the evaluation of products themselves. Virtually no consumer has the means to measure the objective performance of a product using a scientific method.<\/p>\n

That’s not to say that their opinion on a product is not valuable, but it skews reviews based on variables other than objective performance, including brand image, price, and physical appearance.<\/p>\n

\n

Do you trust online user reviews? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More gaming news<\/h3>\n

How much uncapped ADSL data your ISP can give you before it makes a loss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Entire Polaris graphics card lineup revealed including Radeon RX 490<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where are DStv\u2019s gaming and tech channels?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is why high online user ratings don\u2019t actually mean you\u2019re getting a quality product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":97614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,20],"tags":[2794,5756,1807,20080],"class_list":["post-97612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-features","tag-amazon","tag-e-commerce","tag-online","tag-user-ratings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97676,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97612\/revisions\/97676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}