Borrow it
Coverart for item
The Resource The problem with online ratings, by Sinan Aral

The problem with online ratings, by Sinan Aral

Creator
Author
Contributor
Summary
In the digital age, we are inundated with other people's opinions. We browse books on Amazon with awareness of how other customers liked (or disliked) a particular tome. On Expedia, we compare hotels based on user ratings. On YouTube, we can check out a video's thumbs-up/thumbs-down score to help determine if it's worth our time. For the most part, consumers have faith in online ratings and view them as trustworthy. But, the author argues, this trust may be misplaced. The heart of the problem lies with our herd instincts - natural human impulses characterized by a lack of individual decision making - that cause us to think and act in the same way as other people around us. When it comes to online ratings, our herd instincts combine with our susceptibility to positive "social influence." When we see that other people have appreciated a certain book, enjoyed a hotel or restaurant or liked a particular doctor, this can cause us to feel the same positive feelings and to provide a similarly high online rating. The author describes an experiment that he and two colleagues conducted on a social news-aggregation website. On the site, users rate news articles and comments by voting them up or down based on how much they enjoyed them. The researchers randomly manipulated the scores of comments with a single up or down vote and then measured the impact of these small manipulations on subsequent scores. The results were striking. The positive manipulations created a positive social influence bias that persisted over five months and that ultimately increased the comments' final ratings by 25%. Negatively manipulated scores, meanwhile, were offset by a correction effect that neutralized the manipulation: Although viewers of negatively manipulated comments were more likely to vote negative (evidence of negative herding), they were even more likely to positively "correct" what they saw as an undeserved negative score. This social-influence bias snowballs into disproportionately high scores, creating a tendency toward positive ratings bubbles. Positively manipulated scores were 30% more likely than control comments (the comments that the researchers did not manipulate) to reach or exceed a score of 10. A positive vote didn't just affect the mean of the ratings distribution; it pushed the upper tail of the distribution out as well, meaning a single positive vote at the beginning could propel comments to ratings stardom
Language
eng
Work
Instance
Label
The problem with online ratings
Title
The problem with online ratings
Statement of responsibility
by Sinan Aral
Creator
Contributor
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
In the digital age, we are inundated with other people's opinions. We browse books on Amazon with awareness of how other customers liked (or disliked) a particular tome. On Expedia, we compare hotels based on user ratings. On YouTube, we can check out a video's thumbs-up/thumbs-down score to help determine if it's worth our time. For the most part, consumers have faith in online ratings and view them as trustworthy. But, the author argues, this trust may be misplaced. The heart of the problem lies with our herd instincts - natural human impulses characterized by a lack of individual decision making - that cause us to think and act in the same way as other people around us. When it comes to online ratings, our herd instincts combine with our susceptibility to positive "social influence." When we see that other people have appreciated a certain book, enjoyed a hotel or restaurant or liked a particular doctor, this can cause us to feel the same positive feelings and to provide a similarly high online rating. The author describes an experiment that he and two colleagues conducted on a social news-aggregation website. On the site, users rate news articles and comments by voting them up or down based on how much they enjoyed them. The researchers randomly manipulated the scores of comments with a single up or down vote and then measured the impact of these small manipulations on subsequent scores. The results were striking. The positive manipulations created a positive social influence bias that persisted over five months and that ultimately increased the comments' final ratings by 25%. Negatively manipulated scores, meanwhile, were offset by a correction effect that neutralized the manipulation: Although viewers of negatively manipulated comments were more likely to vote negative (evidence of negative herding), they were even more likely to positively "correct" what they saw as an undeserved negative score. This social-influence bias snowballs into disproportionately high scores, creating a tendency toward positive ratings bubbles. Positively manipulated scores were 30% more likely than control comments (the comments that the researchers did not manipulate) to reach or exceed a score of 10. A positive vote didn't just affect the mean of the ratings distribution; it pushed the upper tail of the distribution out as well, meaning a single positive vote at the beginning could propel comments to ratings stardom
Is part of
Cataloging source
UMI
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Aral, Sinan
Dewey number
658.403
Index
no index present
LC call number
BF448
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Decision making
  • Electronic discussion groups
  • Decision making
  • Electronic discussion groups
Label
The problem with online ratings, by Sinan Aral
Link
https://sfpl.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/covers/oreilly_logo.jpg
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (1 volume)
Form of item
online
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Note
O'Reilly
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
cl0500000584
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)908404895
Label
The problem with online ratings, by Sinan Aral
Link
https://sfpl.org/sites/default/files/uploads/images/covers/oreilly_logo.jpg
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (1 volume)
Form of item
online
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Note
O'Reilly
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
cl0500000584
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)908404895

Subject

Genre

Library Locations

  • Anza LibraryBorrow it
    550 37th Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94121, US
    37.778535 -122.497218
  • Bayview/Linda Brooks-Burton LibraryBorrow it
    5075 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA, 94124, US
    37.732534 -122.391121
  • Bernal Heights LibraryBorrow it
    500 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94110, US
    37.738862 -122.416132
  • Bookmobiles / Mobile OutreachBorrow it
    San Francisco, CA, US
  • Chinatown/Him Mark Lai LibraryBorrow it
    1135 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA, 94108, US
    37.795248 -122.410239
  • Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial LibraryBorrow it
    1 Jose Sarria Court, San Francisco, CA, 94114, US
    37.764084 -122.431821
  • Excelsior LibraryBorrow it
    4400 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94112, US
    37.727127 -122.433284
  • Glen Park LibraryBorrow it
    2825 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA, 94131, US
    37.733969 -122.433723
  • Golden Gate Valley LibraryBorrow it
    1801 Green Street, San Francisco, CA, 94123, US
    37.797819 -122.428950
  • Ingleside LibraryBorrow it
    1298 Ocean Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94112, US
    37.724132 -122.456251
  • Marina LibraryBorrow it
    1890 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA, 94123, US
    37.801325 -122.434154
  • Merced LibraryBorrow it
    155 Winston Drive, San Francisco, CA, 94132, US
    37.726735 -122.474482
  • Mission Bay LibraryBorrow it
    960 4th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94158, US
    37.775330 -122.393195
  • Mission LibraryBorrow it
    300 Bartlett St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, US
    37.751989 -122.419843
  • Noe Valley/Sally Brunn LibraryBorrow it
    451 Jersey Street, San Francisco, CA, 94114, US
    37.750180 -122.435116
  • North Beach LibraryBorrow it
    850 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94133, US
    37.802585 -122.413280
  • Ocean View LibraryBorrow it
    345 Randolph Street, San Francisco, CA, 94132, US
    37.714138 -122.466002
  • Ortega LibraryBorrow it
    3223 Ortega Street, San Francisco, CA, 94122, US
    37.751163 -122.498094
  • Park LibraryBorrow it
    1833 Page Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, US
    37.770300 -122.451046
  • Parkside LibraryBorrow it
    1200 Taraval Street, San Francisco, CA, 94116, US
    37.743130 -122.479330
  • Portola LibraryBorrow it
    380 Bacon Street, San Francisco, CA, 94134, US
    37.727098 -122.406361
  • Potrero LibraryBorrow it
    1616 20th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107, US
    37.760122 -122.397653
  • Presidio LibraryBorrow it
    3150 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA, 94115, US
    37.788875 -122.444892
  • Richmond/Senator Milton Marks LibraryBorrow it
    351 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94118, US
    37.781855 -122.468054
  • San Francisco Public LibraryBorrow it
    100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102, US
    37.779376 -122.415795
  • Sunset LibraryBorrow it
    1305 18th Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94122, US
    37.763354 -122.476307
  • Visitacion Valley LibraryBorrow it
    201 Leland Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94134, US
    37.712695 -122.407913
  • West Portal LibraryBorrow it
    190 Lenox Way, San Francisco, CA, 94127, US
    37.741341 -122.465883
  • Western AdditionBorrow it
    1550 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA, 94115, US
    37.784121 -122.437503

Library Links

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by San Francisco Public Library. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.