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Why you can’t trust ratings on sites like Amazon and TripAdvisor – Source fastcompany.com

A while back, I bought a mouthwash that was advertised on Amazon. It was from a well-known brand, and it had a high consumer-rating score. The mouthwash turned out to be greasy, the bottle was poorly designed, and it tasted awful: I would have given the item one star. The high rating was baffling. Surely, others agreed with me, so I returned to the item’s page to see if there were other low ratings. It turned out there were many, and nearly all those reviews reiterated my criticisms. Despite so many 1-star reviews, how did the product get such a high overall rating?

I found an answer several links deep on Amazon.com: The site says that when calculating a product’s ratings, it uses “machine-learned models instead of a simple average.” As Amazon further explains, “These models take into account factors, such as how recent the rating or review is and verified purchase status.” Whatever the company claimed went into the calculation, it seemed like many of the 1-star reviews…

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Source : fastcompany.com

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