LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

Positive reviews online influence people more than negative ones, a study implies. (click below to read more)


In one experiment, participants were told good things about one fictitious coffee brand and bad things about another. Some were then told the reviews had been mistakenly reversed. Afterward, these participants remained influenced by the original positive descriptions in evaluating the brands, while the effect of the negative reviews was much less persistent. Researchers compared subjects' reactions to a control group for whom the original information was never corrected.

In a second experiment, subjects showed a greater preference for a hotel when positive online reviews were read before negative ones.

"Seeking the Opinions of Others Online: Evidence of Evaluation Overshoot," Brent L.S. Coker, Journal of Economic Psychology (December)