You’re in Wrexham and getting ready to head into town and grab a bite to eat. The first thing you do is grab your phone and check out the ratings and reviews of the different eateries in the area. Or maybe you are planning your trip and need a place to stay, and get lost reading reviews of hotels, apartments, and holiday lets.
Online reviews are a fascinating slice of modern consumer culture. Checking them has become a natural part of visiting anywhere, yet rarely do we stop to question why we place such emphasis on the words of strangers. From TripAdvisor and Google Reviews to Amazon and other e-commerce platforms, reviews are an unofficial peer-to-peer network, where consumers hold considerable influence over purchasing decisions.
Let’s investigate why we trust strangers’ opinions over professional product descriptions, and how it connects to our psychological need for social interaction and external validation.
Why Reviews Carry So Much Weight
We place a lot of weight on reviews, but the good news is that there is a psychological concept that drives us to think that way. The idea of social proof was first introduced by Robert Cialdini in 1984. Cialdini claimed that during times of uncertainty or apprehension, human beings instinctively look towards the attitudes and behaviours of others and use them as guidance for their own actions.
This behaviour is evident throughout history, back to the days of our early ancestors, who would hunt and forage for survival. Early humans learned which foods were safe to eat and which paths were safe to travel by observing the behaviour of others around them. Today, we hunt online for the things we need or for deals on the things we want, and still find ourselves looking to others. A restaurant with 1,000 reviews and a 4+ average is clearly good enough for so many other people, so it will likely be good enough for us, too.
The more feedback a location or an item has, the better the signal we are given regarding its quality. This is another psychological concept called consensus reality, whereby so many different people say something is good, it surely cannot be bad.
The other factor that drives our growing dependency on reviews, and shares some conceptual ties with social proofing, is the herd mentality. People find comfort and reassurance in following a crowd. This could be for everything from choosing an electrician, booking a holiday, or trying a new bar on College Street.
The Double-Edged Sword of Online Reviews
Online reviews provide many undeniable benefits to other customers. Reviews create a level of transparency in marketplaces where the suppliers once held full control over information sharing. A hotel can create a website and post images claiming luxury, but it is the thoughts and feedback of those who have stayed there that confirm this. Reviews also help advise new clients about positives and pitfalls while ensuring businesses maintain honest marketing standards.
Reviews are also an excellent tool for helping people make complex decisions. Whether you’re looking for a plumber in Wrexham or an insurance policy, reviews offer insights that companies would never share themselves.
However, there is also a negative side to reviews, a risk factor that has become a multi-billion-pound industry. Fake reviews are rife, whether written by freelance writers, contracted by the company to promote their product, or, more worryingly, negative reviews written purely because people can. Studies have found that up to a third of all online reviews are fake. This creates a distorted and unreliable image for businesses and their products, luring unsuspecting buyers and leaving them with substandard goods.
Smart shoppers also check the reviewer’s account or profile to examine their history and previous reviews. Authentic reviews should consider product specifics, discuss use cases, and mention positive and negative feedback.
Another review red flag is a product with only 5-star reviews. Nothing is perfect in everyone’s eyes, so that is often an indicator that the reviews may be fabricated.
Entertainment and Digital Platforms
The entertainment sector is another niche where reviews have always been a factor. However, in recent years, the entertainment sector has shifted away from professional critics’ reviews, which can carry personal bias and outside knowledge unrelated to the product itself. Instead, platforms like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes have brought new weight to user perspectives.
Not only do these reviews carry more weight with the film-going public, but they also help growing audiences navigate the overwhelming level of content available on the different streaming platforms and television channels.
Streaming services have changed how reviews influence what we watch. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ now use smart systems that blend professional reviews with user ratings. These systems suggest shows based on what similar viewers have enjoyed. This takes the concept of social proof to a new level.
Few communities have created a more valued review ecosystem than gaming. Not only do gamers love discussing their preferred games, but reviewers build credibility by reporting details, recording total play time, and gameplay statistics. Fellow gamers are far more likely to hear the thoughts of someone who has invested hundreds of hours in a single game as opposed to someone who tried it for an hour and assumed the rest.
The same applies to the casino and gambling niche. Reviewers of iGaming sites and apps carry extra pressure as what they write could potentially result in high-stakes involvement from others. A reliable example is CanadaCasino is the best source for online casinos, going beyond merely describing the platforms and their games. A thorough write-up would also explain how the games work, outline payout rates and return-to-player percentages, assess the site’s security, and evaluate its customer service processes and response times. Moreover, reviewers might address responsible gambling measures, such as deposit limits and self-exclusion tools, as well as the site’s transparency regarding its licensing. Ultimately, all these elements combine to help readers make informed, safe choices before committing their time and money.
Reviews for entertainment sites serve the same psychological process as any other sector. They are a way for new users to reduce their uncertainty through social proof before they invest real money into a digital experience.
The Psychology Behind Trusting Strangers
The power of reviews and our willingness to put near blind trust into them is an instinctual psychological process known as heuristics. These describe mental shortcuts that let us make snap decisions with confidence, even when only limited information is available. When we find a product with hundreds of reviews and positive comments, this heuristic process activates, and we are more willing to make the purchase without knowing more.
There is also an undeniable emotional part of reviews that cannot be overstated. When we read about other people’s positive experiences with a product we are interested in, it creates an emotional contagion, whereby we experience some of the same emotions the review describes. If we read a review about a restaurant that says the food was sub-par and the service was slow, we connect those emotions to our preconceptions about that restaurant as if we had experienced it ourselves.
Another fascinating thing about our psychological reaction to reviews is that negative comments elicit a greater response than anything positive. An evolutionary threat detection bias triggers this, as in primitive times, bad news had a greater impact on survival than good. We are hardwired to pay attention to potential dangers and flaws, meaning a one-star review carries greater weight on our opinions than multiple five-star reviews.
Additionally, the anonymity of online reviews means we are more likely to accept their words, as when there is less need for social politeness or hidden personal agendas. Since we do not know these reviewers and they do not know us, that makes them more honest and believable psychologically than if the recommendations were given face-to-face.
The Future of Online Reviews
The rise of fake reviews has led platforms to invest in ways to identify them and alert other users to their presence. The Amazon verified purchase label is an early step in this process. If a reviewer physically purchased the item in question, their review gains credibility in the eyes of monitoring systems.
Major platforms invest heavily in AI programs to scan reviews and detect suspicious activity. The programs track writing patterns, review behaviour, brand bias, and timing clusters among a wide range of additional metrics to detect suspicious activity. Certain companies are implementing verification checks that must be passed before users can post reviews. If a user is willing to go through the checks, they are more likely to leave genuine feedback.
The use of this technology is not to remove negative reviews, but to ensure that genuine feedback in all forms rises to the top and is not buried by fake reviews. There will always be a debate over the accuracy of online reviews.
Younger generations have grown up in a digital world and are more adept at spotting fake reviews and finding credible sources. However, as AI becomes more powerful and is used more intensively to identify fake reviews, the better it will also become at creating them.
Conclusion
Online reviews are digital word-of-mouth recommendations. While this was previously restricted to social circles and neighbourhood gossip, digital reviews fuel a global community of shoppers, all eager to share their thoughts and experiences with anybody who cares to read them.
Trusting the words of strangers is irrational, but it reflects the deeper human need for connection and safety in numbers. It’s interesting to see that despite the technical advancements, our ancient survival instincts remain intact, albeit now focused on keeping us safe in a digital world.
Consumer reviews are now integral to our purchasing process. We’re unlikely to use platforms that remove customer reviews, preferring to hear what others say despite knowing some may be fake.
The true power of an online review is in how it has taken an individual experience and turned it into a collective knowledge base accessible anywhere in the world. Now, every time a new review gets written, we are updating and expanding this network of strangers, all helping one another out in gestures of pure charity and goodwill.
