If you take advantage of reviews on Amazon.com when you decide to buy something, be aware that not all reviews are objective. Friends, relatives, and paid reviewers can leave five-star reviews, while enemies or competitors hope to damage an item's reputation with a degrading one-star review. Such reviews do not reflect the personal associations, biases or tendencies, or even financial incentives of the reviewers. So, how do you know if the reviews you see have a secret agenda?
Step
Part 1 of 2: Recognizing Fake Reviews
Step 1. Consider the length and “tone” of existing reviews
- If the review is very short, there's a good chance it's fake. If a person wants to influence the overall score of a product, the main step he takes is likely to be voting through a “star” rating, either to raise or lower the score. However, because Amazon users have to write reviews in order to give them stars, the reviews can be very short (4-5 lines at most).
- If a review is difficult to understand or doesn't contain details about the product in question, there's a good chance it's a fake. Reviews may also use general comments that could apply to other books or products.
Step 2. Check the emotional language contained in the review in question
An objective review usually summarizes and critiques the product's content or features. However, reviews with hidden agendas usually don't include anything like that.
- If the review is written by a friend of the “buyer”, the book or product may be simply described as “great”, “suitable for everyone”, “impressive”, and the like. The reviewer may also say that he plans to buy one product for each person he knows as a specific gift (eg a holiday gift).
- If the review is written by an adversary or competitor of the seller, the product may be considered “crummy”, “ridiculous”, or “a waste of time”. The reviewer may also suggest alternative products, authors of work with better credibility (for the book), or other items that “you might like more”.
Step 3. Check if the reviewer has also made another review
If the user in question rarely writes reviews, it is possible that the reviews he wrote were dishonest. In the "See all my reviews" section next to the reviewer's name, you can see if the user has not written another review. You can also guess whether he wrote a brief, exaggerated, or vague review (to encourage his friend's efforts), or left a scathing review (to an enemy or competitor).
Step 4. Beware if the user in question submits a lot of reviews in a short period of time
If someone is paid to write reviews, he or she may have many short five-star reviews of self-published books or print on demand readings. Check the "See all my reviews" section next to the username for other products he's reviewed, and what each review has in common.
Step 5. Be suspicious if existing reviews reflect bias
The reviewer said he had not read the book or tried the purchased product. So why would he write a review for that book or item? He just wants to raise or lower the star rating of the product without submitting a meaningful review. Sometimes, reviewers who give a small number of stars discuss a list of ingredients or a book's theme that they find annoying, without indicating or saying that they have tried the product or read the book in question.
Step 6. Find out if the item someone is reviewing is the result of a verified purchase ("Verified Purchase")
When evaluating reviews, you also need to find out if the users who are reviewing are buying items directly from Amazon. If so, you'll see an orange " verified purchase " status under the reviewer's name and review date. The status indicates that the reviewer has received the product he purchased.
Step 7. Determine if reviewers get the product for free in exchange for a written review
The review should state whether the user got the item for free in exchange for the review he made. For such reviews, you can assume that the user wrote a review that has a certain bias. However, sometimes people write reviews for items obtained from different parties (e.g. gift books, copies of readings from the library, or items purchased elsewhere). Amazon allows its users to review items obtained from other parties. To be honest, reviews that fall into this category are not considered “fake” reviews.
Step 8. Pay attention to the “Customers Also Bought” segment
Typically, this segment contains similar or complementary products to the product you are viewing. However, if this segment is filled with unrelated products, there is usually something "odd". For example, let's say you're looking at rope or rubber for resistance training. However, the "Customers Also Bought" segment includes items not related to training straps or rubber, such as grill gloves, green tea supplements, and ice containers. This means that these products are offered at a significant discount (or perhaps for free in exchange for reviews) that can influence reviewers' choices or opinions.
Part 2 of 2: Considering and Showing Reaction to Reviews
Step 1. Ignore the highest and lowest ratings
Read mid-rated reviews for a more accurate assessment of the book or product you are viewing.
One-star reviews should always be suspect, especially for books by controversial authors
Step 2. Read more reviews and think critically
Do the reviews you see sound like what a crazy mom would say? Or does the review sound like the words of an enemy in high school?
When reading reviews, don't judge them based on whether you have the same opinion about the product or book in question. Think about whether the review is wise, fair, and well-written. Even people who have different views with you may have opinions that are actually useful
Step 3. Provide feedback to help people reading reviews
If you feel that the existing reviews are helpful and objective, click “Yes” in the sentence “Was this review helpful to you?” at the end of the review. Thus, the credibility of reviewers can be increased. If you feel that an existing review is unbiased or has a hidden agenda, click " No " to downgrade the review status.
Tips
- If the review contains spam, offensive language, or other content that violates Amazon.com's review policies, click the link to report violence or "Report Abuse" (above the “Yes”/” No” button in the sentence “Was this review helpful to you ? "). With these links, you can report content as inappropriate reviews and include reasons for reporting if you wish. Staff from Amazon. will evaluate the review and take appropriate steps.
- Consider the profile of a user who leaves a five-star review, especially if he or she posts multiple reviews with the same rating.
- You remember the bell curve studied in statistics and probability? The bell curve (more precisely, half a curve) of 1-5 star ratings you can “see” if the product you are looking at is indeed a good one. This curve mathematically illustrates the old adage, "You can't please everyone."
Warning
- If a five-star review profile has a dumbbell curve (weight rating in the smallest or lowest star), there is a good chance the product in question is indeed good unless there are quality control problems in the production process that occur too often so that the product cannot be used.
- Finally, if most (or nearly all) of the ratings show one or five stars, the product may be of very poor or, conversely, very good quality.
